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), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...

Education and career

Emilie Beneš was born in

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Ca ...

. She earned a fine arts degree at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, 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 were 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 name ...

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 metalloid ...

, is in the collection of

Grounds for Sculpture Grounds For Sculpture (GFS) is a Sculpture garden, sculpture park and museum located in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Hamilton Township, New Jersey. It is located on the former site of Trenton Speedway. Founded in 1992 by John S ...

, 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 landscaped surroundings. A sculpture garden may be private, owned by a ...

and

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. 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 ...

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 cit ...

International Sculpture Biennale. The

Kreeger Museum The Kreeger Museum is a modern and contemporary non-profit art museum located in Washington, D.C., United States. It is located on Foxhall Road, one of the wealthy residential neighborhoods of the city, in the former home of Carmen and David Ll ...

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 Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

'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 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czec ...

, married Polish-born emigrant turned naturalized citizen

, a political scientist who served as an adviser to

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

while US president. The Brzezinskis had 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 Georg ...

, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy in 2001–2005. Their second son, Mark Brzezinski, was the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 2022 to 2025. Their youngest child,

Mika Brzezinski Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski Scarborough (; Brzezinski; born May 2, 1967) is an American talk show host who co-hosts MSNBC's weekday morning broadcast show ''Morning Joe'' alongside her husband Joe Scarborough. She was formerly a CBS News corr ...

, is a co-host of

Morning Joe ''Morning Joe'' is an American morning news talk show, which airs weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, Eastern Time on the cable news channel MSNBC. It features former United States House of Representatives, US Repr ...

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. Emilie Beneš 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
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References

External links

Museum Kampa
in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

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 21st-century American women sculptors 20th-century American women sculptors