Ida Kerkovius


Ida Kerkovius was a Baltic German painter and weaver from Latvia.

Life

Kerkovius was one of twelve children born to an upper class Baltic German family. She was taught piano at an all-girls secondary school before attending a private institution in Riga. In Riga she studied with Adolf Hölzel and grew to have an acute understanding of paint and color. She became an assistant and theorist at the Königlich Württembergische Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart before losing her citizenship, and thus her place at the academy, during World War I. Kerkovius then taught foreign students in similar positions and registered at the Bauhaus, where she eventually joined the weaving workshop. Her income between the wars came primarily from the weaving workshop and through the secret sale of Kerkovius’s art by art dealer Bekker vom Rath. Her studio in Stuttgart was bombed during World War II, destroying many of her existing paintings. She was later named a member of the artists’ guild of Esslingen am Neckar and was awarded first prize for work in the 1955 exhibition Ischia im Bilde deutscher Maler.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions