Jutta Sika (September 17, 1877 – January 2, 1964) was an Austrian graphic designer, artist, fashion designer, and an educator.

Early life and education

Sika was born on September 17, 1877, in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

, Austria. Her father, Alfred Sika, had worked as an inspector for the state-controlled railway system. Around the same year that she was born, the family moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Sika had always had an interest in the arts and in 1895, she began to pursue her studies at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. She remained there for two years before continuing her education at the School of Applied Arts, where she went to study costume design from 1897 to 1902 and then returning from 1913 to 1914.

Career

Sika was one of the founding members of "Wiener Kunst im Hause", a group formed in 1901 that was composed of former students who had attended Kunstgewerbeschule Wien. This group then rebranded itself as

Wiener Werkstätte The Wiener Werkstätte (engl.: ''Vienna Workshop''), established in 1903 by the graphic designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann and the patron Fritz Waerndorfer, was a productive association in Vienna, Austria that b ...

, shifting their attention towards creating ''

Gesamtkunstwerk A ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of al ...

'', a unified system that embraced the concept of a total work of art and all around a unified design for interiors. Sika was also a skilled ceramicist and glass designer working for well-known ceramics and glass manufacturers. Later she went on to design women's fashion for multiple fashion firms, creating accessories and embroidery designs for Austrian fashion brands such as Schwestern Flöge and Wiener Stickerei. She then worked as a graphic designer, working for a Christmas tree decoration firm, tea packaging and making postcards. In 1920, she began to put all of her energy towards paintings when she developed an interest in creating floral subjects. She also worked as a teacher, becoming a professor for a drawing class at Gewerbliche Fortbildungschule in Vienna from 1911 to 1933. During the Second World War she spent the remainder of her time teaching at an girls' secondary school. She died on January 2, 1964, in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Work

Many of Sika's works are in the collections of museums in the United States including the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...

, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sika, Jutta 20th-century Austrian artists 20th-century Austrian educators 20th-century Austrian women artists 20th-century ceramists 20th-century women educators Artists from Linz Austrian ceramists Austrian fashion designers Austrian graphic designers Austrian women ceramists Wiener Werkstätte Austrian women fashion designers Women graphic designers 1877 births 1964 deaths