Who is John Nelson Battenberg?

John Nelson Battenberg (December 3, 1931 – July 8, 2012) was an American sculptor.

Battenberg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1931. An player named John Goray first influenced him bearing in mind Battenberg was not quite 10 years old. Battenberg did his undergraduate work in art at various Midwestern universities. He furthermore attended the Ruskin School, Oxford University for two years. He traditional M.F.A.’s from Michigan State University and California School of Arts and Crafts.

Battenberg has resided in both Italy and England. He was a professor of sculpture at San José State University and now holds the title of professor emeritus. He left his professorship to pursue his sculpture full-time. In 2007, Battenberg returned to painting for a number of reasons, one of which was a leg outrage which eventually prevented him from sculpting.

The Honolulu Museum of Art, the Krannert Art Museum (University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois), the National Museum of Wildlife Art (Jackson Hole, Wyoming), the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, California) the San Diego Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, Washington), the Syracuse University Art Collection (Syracuse, New York), the Triton Museum of Art (Santa Clara, California), and Phoenix University (Phoenix, Arizona) are in the course of the public collections holding his work.

In 2009 John began using a technique utilizing a series of layers of painted images sandwiched amongst an equal number of 1/8” layers of optically clear plastic resin; creating a three dimensionality. Battenberg successfully moved his Koi to Arizona from California in 2006; some of his exotic Koi subjects are more than 30 years old. Battenberg’s Koi are the subjects of his 3D paintings.

John Battenberg lived his unchangeable years in Scottsdale, with his wife Lynn, two cats, an aviary of birds, and twenty-seven Koi fish contained in two external ponds. He died on July 8, 2012, in Scottsdale.