Artists

Elsa Hermine Dziomba was born in Germany in 1906. She learned how to model in clay from an early age as her father owned a pottery factory. She studied at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 1933 she moved to South Africa and is known as one of the first female sculptors in the country. She created both realistic and abstract works, depicting universal themes which were often based on the human form. Dziomba used a variety of materials including indigenous woods and stone, with a few of her works being cast in bronze. Dziomba joined The New Group in 1938 and held her first solo exhibition in Cape Town in the same year. She participated in several group and joint exhibitions throughout South Africa including exhibitions with Jean Welz, and the Empire Exhibition in 1936. She exhibited on the Venice Biennale in 1936 and was a prize winner in the Tate Gallery’s International Sculpture Competition in 1953 for her work Monument to an Unknown Political Prisoner. Dziomba completed several commissions during her career, including a number of portrait busts. Her work is represented in many of the South African national art museums. She died in Johannesburg in 1970.