Helene Fesenmaier

Helene Marie Fesenmaier (August 31, 1937 – June 21, 2013) was an American painter and sculptor working in acrylic, oil pastels, and wood alongside many other materials. She was encouraged in art by her mother, who had studied at the Art Institute in Chicago. She graduated from Smith College and Yale School of Art. Fesenamier was part of a group who established the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture in 1964. She spent time painting in the Netherlands and visited archaeological sites in Greece, Peru and Yucatán before taking up sculpting in Venezuela when she could not obtain suitable life models to paint and draw from this led to her making her own wooden constructions from packing crates using pastels to make drawings on black paper, later to be exhibited alongside each other. In 1970, Fesenmaier moved from Venezuela to London, as she combined painting and sculpting. She exhibited her works in major cities and art museums across the globe, and was posthumously inducted into the ISD 88 Hall of Fame in 2017.

Early life Fesenmaier, born on August 31, 1937, in New Ulm, Minnesota, was the oldest daughter of German-born physician Otto Bernard Fesenmaier and his Polish wife and interior designer Helene Marie, née Perlowski. She had a younger sister. Fesenmaier attended schools in her local area, graduating from New Ulm High School in 1955. After leaving high school, she enrolled at Smith College, Massachusetts, studying printmaking with Leonard Baskin. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1959, and went on to study for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in fine art under Josef Albers at Yale School of Art from 1959 to 1961. continuing to combine painting and sculpting. In 1999, a Brown County Historical Society-sponsored exhibition of her works took place in New Ulm. Fesenmaier was formally inducted at a ceremony at New Ulm High School on September 30, 2017.