Rosemarie Lierke
Rosemarie Lierke, born Rosemarie Lindner, is a German glass artist, trained mathematician and a researcher into the history and technology of ancient glass production. Some of her artwork is held in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Biography
After graduating from high school in 1953 in Schnepfenthal, Thuringia, Germany, Lierke studied mathematics in Berlin and Cologne from 1953 to 1960. From 1962 to 1967, she was a research assistant at the Technical University of Aachen. She also began to work with enameling, for which she built her own kiln for high-temperature tasks.In 1967, she moved to Toledo, Ohio in the United States with her husband, the physicist Ernst-Günter Lierke, and their two sons. At that time, Toledo called itself the "Glass Capital of the World." There she learned about the American studio glass movement and began making new artwork in glass, which she continued to do after she returned to Germany in 1970.
From 1975 to 1979, Lierke worked as a mathematics teacher at the high school in Sulzbach. From 1977 to 1987, she retreated to her glassblowing workshop in Schwalbach am Taunus, investigating lamp-working techniques and inventing a new craquelé technique, which she patented in 1979.
In 1987, she returned to the United States, this time going to Pasadena, California so her husband could conduct NASA-based research. She closed her workshop and intensified her scientific research into non-blown ancient glass vessels.
Based on her practical work with glass and her study of ancient and medieval glasses, Lierke presented new ideas for the manufacture of glasses, especially cameo glass, the cage cup and the medieval Hedwig glass. Her work proved to be hotly debated and controversial in the scientific community.
To mark Lierke's 90th birthday, an exhibition of her works took place at the Bad Driburg Glass Museum from January to August 2025.
Works in museums
- Cylinder vase with enamel decoration, Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast Inv. P 1979-5
- Vase, Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast Inv. Gl 2006-208
- Vase Maigelein, Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast Inv. Gl 2006-209
- Vase, Toledo Museum of Art Inv. 1980.1014