The dolls of Hildegard Günzel
The German designer and artist Hildegard Günzel is without exaggeration the most awarded doll artist worldwide. With her very own signature, she is undisputedly one of the most important designers in the history of German doll design.
She graduated from the German Master School for Fashion Design in Munich and worked for many years as a designer for the fashion and jewellery industries.
Hildegard Günzel's dolls impress with their lifelike skin texture, which is created by wax coating the porcelain. Only the finest materials such as real silk, cashmere, the most expensive brocades and hand-embroidered fabrics are used for the clothes. Her dolls wear hand-knotted human hair wigs. Accessories of the dolls are always elaborately and nobly designed and testify to their love of detail.
For the company Wanke she designed the first reproduction artist doll, which was introduced to the market at the time.
On an international level Mrs. Günzel organized doll congresses in Australia, New Zealand, Japan as well as the USA, Canada and many other countries. Her activities led to a renaissance of contemporary doll art and a subsequent worldwide boom.
In 1996 Hildegard Günzel opened a doll museum within her manufactory in Duisburg. This museum for contemporary doll art was dedicated to collectors and lovers of her exquisite art who travel from all over the world to be her guests.
Each year she presents a new collection of porcelain and resin dolls in a limited edition.
Since the 80's she has been well known at the worldwide fairs and exhibitions, such as the IDEX in the United States, the Nuremberg Toy Fair, the Maison & Objet in Paris, France and since 1997 also Moscow, Russia. From time to time she travels to the USA to meet her large crowd of admirers, signing dolls and books and inviting them to special dinner evenings. Her personal relationship with the collectors is very close to her heart.
Hildegard Günzel published six books in several languages for admirers of her art and design. Her publications about her modelling techniques and her documentation "Modelling with Hildegard Günzel" are well-known and extremely instructive for every beginner in doll design.
Hildegard Günzel can look back on more than 40 years of receiving awards, during which she was awarded every important prize for her amazingly good work. In addition to the US American awards such as the DOTY Awards and DOLLS OF EXCELLENCE, in 2003 she received the JUMEAU AWARD for her life's work and the book "Doll Fantasies". Also in 2003 she received the DISCOVERY AWARD. She received another award for her life's work from JONES PUBLISHING (USA). She was also awarded the PANDORA in Moscow in 2010.
The ArsFIGURA shows some very interesting exhibits of the artist.