John Nelson Battenberg, painter, printmaker, sculptor and educator, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 3, 1931. His undergraduate work was at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and the Minnesota State College in St. Cloud but he also attended the Ruskin School at Oxford University between 1955 and 1957. In 1960 he received his MFA degree from Michigan State University in East Lansing. Battenberg moved to California in 1963 where he continued his graduate work at the California School of Arts and Crafts.
Battenberg was a casting instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1964 as well as a sculpture instructor at Contra Costa College until he joined the art department as professor of sculptor at San Jose State University in 1966. He taught at San Jose until 1985 when he retired to devote himself to sculpture.
He earned numerous awards and commissions and he was an Artist-in-Residence at universities in New Mexico, California, Hawaii, Rome, Russia and Lithuania. His work was included in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
Collections holding Battenberg’s work include the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Oakland Museum of California, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Syracuse University Art Collection, the Triton Museum of Art and Phoenix University.
John Battenberg died in Scottsdale, Arizona on July 8, 2012.