Discipline: Visual Art

Leslie Bohnenkamp

Discipline: Visual Art
Region: New York, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1979
Leslie Bohnenkamp (1943-1997) was an American sculptor and textile artist. He grew up in rural Iowa and attended the University of Iowa majoring in textile design. After college he moved to Frankfurt, Germany, where he worked for Peter and Ritzi Jacobi on a variety of large-scale commissioned tapestries. Having mastered the techniques of traditional weaving, Bohnenkamp began to experiment with a variety of materials, including animal hair and twine. In 1969, his first woven sculptural forms were produced. In the 1970's, Bohnenkamp ventured into off-loom techniques of coiling and knotting fibers, and his work evolved into freestanding column-like sculptures in the round. Exhibited across the U.S. in prominent galleries, many of Bohnenkamp's pieces have been added to private collections, as well as museums, notably The Portland Museum of Art in Maine and the Columbus Art Museum in Ohio. As recognition for his unique fiber sculptures was escalating, Bohnenkamp suffered a serious head injury when struck by a car in 1980. The injury left him physically depleted. He continued his works in paper for a numbers of year, but his ill health forced him to stop creating art nearly ten years before his death at age 54.

Studios

New Hampshire

Leslie Bohnenkamp worked in the New Hampshire studio.

New Hampshire Studio, originally named Peterborough Studio, was given to MacDowell by Mr. and Mrs. William Schofield, Mrs. H. A. Chamberlain, Mrs. Andrew Draper, and Miss Ruth Cheney. The studio was renamed in 1943. The Gilbert Verney Foundation established an endowed maintenance fund in 1990, and a bequest in memory of MacDowell Fellow Victor Candell underwrote the…

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