Skip to main content

Sonnabend, Yolanda (artist and theatre designer)

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1935 - 2015

Biography

Yolanda Pauline Tamara Sonnabend was born on 26 March 1935 in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to German-Russian parents. After a cultured upbringing, Yolanda went on to study art in Geneva, and painting and stage design at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She received her first design commission at the Royal Ballet in 1958, while she was still an undergraduate, and went on to forge a brilliant career as a stage designer. She worked closely with the choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan throughout the 1960s-1980s, and designed for theatre, opera and ballet shows across Europe. She also collaborated with scientist C.H. Waddington on the illustrations for his posthumously-published book Tools for Thought (1977).

As well as being included in Twenty Years of British Stage design, a British Council show which toured Europe, Sonnabend exhibited paintings and designs in London, Paris, Verona, Cologne and Milan.

Sonnabend was the production designer in the film The Tempest (1979) directed by Derek Jarman, and, with Simon Holland, and production designer for the film Decadence (1994) directed by Steven Berkoff and David Tickner. She also had a small role as a 'person in the Colony Room Club' in the film Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), directed by John Maybury.

In 2000 she won the Garrick-Milne prize for theatrical portrait painting. For the National Portrait Gallery she has painted and drawn Stephen William Hawking, as well as Norman Wingate Pirie, Sir Kenneth Macmillan and Joseph Needham.

Yolanda Sonnabend died in November 2015.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Papers and artwork of Yolanda Sonnabend relating to her collaboration with C.H. Waddington

 Fonds
Identifier: Coll-1461
Scope and Contents Contains: Coll-1461/1: original artworks created by Yolanda Sonnabend for C.H. Waddington's book 'Tools for Thought' Coll-1461/2: collections of articles and research materials relating to Waddington's work, including manuscripts for his books 'Beyond Appearance', 'The Man-Made Future' and 'Tools for Thought' Coll-1461/3: letters to Yolanda Sonnabend, chiefly from C.H....
Dates: c.1960-2005