Dagmar Margrethe Kristine Starcke née Kaae (1899–1975) was a Danish painter and

textile artist Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials u ...

who is remembered for her pictorial

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

s and woven textile works. Several of her creations are in the permanent collection at the Worker's Museum in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. Starcke was one of the artists who contributed to the sewing and embroidery organization Haandarbejdets Fremme.

Biography

Born on 13 December 1899 in the

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...

district of

, Dagmar Margrethe Kristine Kaae was the daughter of Frederik Christian Larsen Kaae and Hansine Klinge. After matriculating from high school, she attended the Tegne- og Kunstindustriskole for Kvinder (Drawing and Handicrafts School for Women) before studying at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dani ...

under

Sigurd Wandel Sigurd Wandel (22 February 1875 – 3 June 1947) was a Danish painter who became director of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Biography Wandel was born in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the son of art collector Os ...

(1921–24). In 1925 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, she married the sculptor

Henrik Starcke Henrik Starcke (16 April 1899 – 5 June 1973) was a Danish sculptor who created fanciful creatures based on his interest in ancient art. Biography Born in Copenhagen, he was the son of the politician and philosopher Carl Nicolai Starcke. He was ...

(1899–1973). Although she graduated from the Danish Academy as a painter, Starcke was above all proficient as a textile artist, creating pictorial collages and woven pieces, both large and small. She used fabrics or "rags" of various kinds to provide shape and colour to her work, creating simple but refined artistic compositions. Her subjects were frequently inspired by the tales of

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

or by stories from the Bible. Many of her works were used to decorate public institutions or social housing. Starcke also worked with other materials and techniques, for example by creating mosaics of sintered brick. Dagmar Starcke died in

Farum Farum is a town on the northeast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, 20 km northwest of Copenhagen. The town has a population of 20,312 (1 January 2022).

around 27 July 1975.

Awards

Starcke received several grants and awards including the

Tagea Brandt Rejselegat The Tagea Brandts ''Rejselegat'' (Travel Scholarship) is a Danish award to women who have made a significant contribution in science, literature or art. The grant, which is given without application, was created and endowed by Danish industrialist ...

(1943) and the Niels Larsen Stevns prize (1973).

References

External links

Illustrations of Dagmar Starcke's work from Kunstindeks Danmark
1899 births 1975 deaths Danish painters Danish textile artists Danish women artists Artists from Copenhagen Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni University of Copenhagen alumni Women textile artists {{Denmark-bio-stub