Cornelius (Cornel) Swen, born December 22, 1930, Randstad-Rotterdam, Netherlands. Died Canberra, April 14,  2022.

By MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE

WELL-known Queanbeyan graphic designer Cornel Swen has died. He was 91.

The Swen name is a familiar one in Australian artistic circles.

Cornel worked in the Netherlands, Asia, Sydney and Canberra, while Hiroe, his widow, is a highly esteemed ceramic artist and former Canberra Artist of the Year.

In 1951, Cornel emigrated to from Europe and began working as a freelance artist in Sydney. From 1952 to 1954 he was employed as designer-artist on magazine layouts at KG Murray Publishing in Sydney, continuing in a similar role with other companies for several years, while freelancing from his own studio.

He became an Australian citizen in 1961. He bought a block of land and commissioned an architect to plan a minimalist, modernist house with a flat roof. He invited his parents, who had also migrated to Australia, and his elder brother to come and live with him.

During this time that he was asked to design one of Harry Seidler’s trilingual books, both sharing a strong passion about design.

In 1965 Swen travelled to south-east Asia to work in advertising in Singapore. On a detour to Japan, he met Hiroe Takebe in Kyoto, and they were married in 1966. They stayed in Kyoto for two years for Hiroe’s parents to get to know him better.

She had been running a small restaurant in the evenings, and his support enabled her to give this up and work full-time on the production of new ceramics for two solo shows, to be held in Australia. This is the first indication of Cornel’s total support for his wife’s artist career.

After their arrival, the had couple planned to stay in Sydney. However, Hiroe was offered a part time teaching position in Canberra, and Cornel was successful in his application for the position of an artist in the Department of Immigration.

They purchased a 22-hectare sheep farm on the outskirts of Canberra. They had always planned to own and manage an art gallery strictly on their own terms. Two years later, Cornel left the public service to begin more challenging projects, one of which was to complete a half-built house and add a gallery.

Hiroe’s inaugural exhibition at Pastoral Gallery was in 1973. Cornel continued to have exhibitions in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. In 1986 a fire totally destroyed his studio, Hiroe’s parents’ flat and a major part of the gallery.

Two years later, the pair reopened the enlarged gallery with a joint exhibition of dye paintings and ceramics. They continued to have shows, both solo and joint, in Australia and overseas. In 1994, Cornel discontinued the dye-painting due to mounting health problems caused by the medium’s toxicity.

In 2004 Cornel and Hiroe completed a public artwork in Queanbeyan to celebrate the sister city relationship between Queanbeyan and firstly, Hatta Mura in Japan and then the Minami Alps City, also in Japan.

Cornel designed another work to celebrate the “Het Duyfken”, and the Dutch explorer who discovered Australia’s northern coastline in 1606. He later expressed disappointment that his idea of a work inspired by the sight of billowing sails (cast in steel plate) was “ditched for fear of being too prone to vandalism. The final version is a mundane, stunted obelisk on which ones of the plaques, illustrates the explorer’s vessel”.

Cornel had high design principles from which he never wavered. He supported Hiroe in her work completely and was always in the background giving her advice and help. Cornel will be remembered as much for his own work, as for his committed support.

He is survived by his wife Hiroe Swen.

A private funeral will be held with close family members.