Emilie Beneš Brzezinski (born Emilie Anna Beneš; January 21, 1932 – July 22, 2022) was a Swiss-American sculptor and the wife of

Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's ...

Education and career

Emilie Beneš was born in

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. She earned a fine arts degree at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States. After marrying, she sculpted for 25 years while raising a family, then had her first solo show in 1981 in Washington, D.C. From the 1980s on, most of her works have been in wood. Her monumental 1993 work ''Lintel'', constructed from cut

cherry tree A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

s and then cast in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, is in the collection of

Grounds for Sculpture Grounds For Sculpture (GFS) is a sculpture park and museum located in Hamilton, New Jersey. It is located on the former site of Trenton Speedway. Founded in 1992 by John Seward Johnson II, the venue is dedicated to promoting an understanding of ...

, a

sculpture park A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaping, landscaped surroundings. A sculpture garden may be privat ...

and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She exhibited in the 2003

Florence Biennale The Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea, also known as the Florence Biennale is an art exhibition held in Florence, Italy. Since 1997 it has been held every two years in the exhibition spaces of the Fortezza da Basso, Florence. The li ...

and participated by invitation in the 2005

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

International Sculpture Biennale. The

Kreeger Museum The Kreeger Museum is a modern and contemporary non-profit art museum located in Washington D.C. It is located in the former home of David Lloyd Kreeger and Carmen Kreeger and it contains the art collection they acquired from 1952 to 1988. Arch ...

had an exhibition of her work in 2014.

Personal life

Václav Edvard Beneš, a mathematician, was her brother. Shortly after graduating from Wellesley, Emilie Beneš, herself a relative of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

's former president

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 1945 ...

, married Polish-born emigrant turned naturalized citizen

, a political scientist who served as an adviser to

President Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 19 ...

. The Brzezinskis have three children. Their oldest son,

Ian Brzezinski Ian Joseph Brzezinski (born December 23, 1963) is an American foreign policy and military affairs expert. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy from 14 May 2001 to 20 January 2005, under President Geo ...

, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy in 2001–2005. Their second son,

Mark Brzezinski Mark Francis Brzezinski (born April 7, 1965) is an American lawyer serving as the United States Ambassador to Poland since 2022. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to Sweden from 2011 to 2015 under President Barack Obama. The so ...

, is the current U.S. Ambassador to Poland. Their youngest child,

Mika Brzezinski Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski Scarborough (; pl, Brzezińska; born May 2, 1967) is an American talk show host, liberal political commentator, and author who currently co-hosts MSNBC's weekday morning broadcast show ''Morning Joe''. She was forme ...

, is a co-host for

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

. Emilie Benes Brzezinski died on July 22, 2022, at the age of 90.Emilie Benes Brzezinski is dead. Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s wife was 90 years old
/ref>

References

External links

Museum Kampa
in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Vancouver Sculpture BiennaleOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brzezinski, Emilie Benes 1932 births 2022 deaths Wellesley College alumni Artists from Geneva Swiss emigrants to the United States American people of Czech descent Emilie Benes United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists