Ellie Hahn

Ellie Hahn (born in Jutphaas, The Netherlands, 1950) received her training at the Artibus Academy where she was taught by sculptor Jan van Luijn (1968-1973) and at the Amsterdam State Academy of Visual Arts where she studied under professor V.P.S. Esser (1973–1977). She was an instructor at the Stichting voor Esthetische Vormgeving Artibus Utrecht foundation until 1989 and has been teaching at Stichting CREA, the cultural organisation of the University of Amsterdam, since 1978. She received the Stichting Kunstprijs Willem F.C. Uriôt award in 1975 and became the winner of the Prix de Rome fellowship in sculpture in 1977.

Ellie Hahn’s bronze and stone sculptures display her pursuit of simplicity and essence com­bined with a strong sense of space. She gets her inspiration from the natural world of everyday things: animals, people, an encounter, a gesture, an impression. Her figures are personifications of abstract concepts. They convey a sense of pride and poignancy, of openness and intimacy. She approaches shape as an abstract element – mass, direction, size and rhythm – and arrives at the essence of the chosen concept with little detail. ‘During my work, I feel at one with my subject, whether it be a portrait of someone who has died or a more abstract concept like ‘winter’. My aim is to convey, in visual terms, the subject’s character and emotional impact to such a degree that observers find themselves slipping into another world.’

Several municipalities and agencies have purchased her works. Examples are the Municipality of Utrecht (sculpture on a schoolyard, sculpture for a production hall in the UNA power station, sculpture for a rose garden), Maarssen (sculpture for a centre for services for the elderly), Zeist (portrait of Willem Pijper and Marsman), Woudrichem and Heeswijk; the VU University Amsterdam (mobile for a stairwell), the University of Amsterdam (sculpture for the entrance, Stichting CREA), the Hana Hou Award (annual music award). She has also been commissioned to create portraits (heads and full figures), promotional gifts, memorial stones and medallions.