Esther Wertheimer

Esther Wertheimer (née Estera Sheps) (1926 – August 18, 2016) was a Canadian sculptor and educator. She is known for her semi-abstract figurative bronze sculptures and portrait busts in terra cotta. During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Wertheimer lived semi-annually at the artist's colony and sculpture foundry in Pietrasanta, Italy. Later, encouraged by her former high school art teacher, Anne Savage, she studied art at the School of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1958–1963), and in 1960, became the founding member and director of the Saint Laurent Art Society in Ville Saint-Laurent (a Montreal municipality), where she taught from her studio, at the YMCA, and organized annual spring exhibitions at Saint Laurent City Hall with local artists. In 1964, she continued her studies at the John Byers School of Sculpture in Montreal.

Selected works Primavera (Democracy) (in front of Fukuoka Town Hall Plaza) (1992) Caftan (at Hakone forest of sculpture), Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan Seven Dancers Okaloosa-Walton Community College, Niceville, Florida, USA Airborn Civic Center Library, Livermore, California, USA Children at Play with Hoops

Selected awards Canada Council Travel Grant (1967) Gold Medal, INT Tourismo, Rome, Italy (1977) EUR Europa Primio, Rome, Italy (1977) 3rd Prize (for Caftan), Rodin Third National Sculpture Competition, Hakone, Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan (1989) International Arts Award, B'nai B'rith Foundation, Washington, DC, USA (1997)