Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss (28 March 1928 – 20 November 2022) was a Swedish costume designer, scenic designer, sculptor, ceramist, and actress. She won the 1966 Tony Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade (1963). She has designed sets and costumes for numerous theaters internationally, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Swedish Opera.
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss

KWa · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 28 March 1928
- Birthplace
- Lausanne, Switzerland
- Died
- 20 November 2022
- Place of death
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Nationality
- Sweden
- Occupation
- writer · ceramicist · sculptor · costume designer · scenographer · theatre designer · artist
- Fields
- scenography · costume design
- Education
- Konstfack
- Honours
- Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany · Tony Award for Best Costume Design · Professor
- Languages
- German
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Documentary summary
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss (28 March 1928 – 20 November 2022) was a Swedish costume designer, scenic designer, sculptor, ceramist, and actress. She won the 1966 Tony Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade (1963). She has designed sets and costumes for numerous theaters internationally, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Swedish Opera.
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wikidata · Q1554690 · wikipedia · Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss
In this article
Biography
Biography
From 1966 to 1989, she worked regularly as a set and costume designer for Ingmar Bergman. She also collaborated as a designer with directors Fritz Kortner and Peter Brook.
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss studied at Konstfack. The recorded working language is German. The field of work recorded is scenography and costume design. Places of work recorded in the authority are Stockholm. Work by Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss is recorded in the collections of Nationalmuseum. Distinctions recorded are Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Tony Award for Best Costume Design and Professor.
Key facts
Key facts
• Born — 28 March 1928 • Birthplace — Lausanne, Switzerland • Died — 20 November 2022 • Place of death — Stockholm, Sweden • Parents — * Kule Palmstierna • Vera Herzog • Relatives — * Ebba Palmstierna (grandmother) • Erik Palmstierna (grandfather)
Biography
Biography
Born Gunilla Palmstierna on 28 March 1928 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Palmstierna-Weiss grew up in the Netherlands and Austria. Her parents, Kule Palmstierna and Vera Herzog, worked as physicians, and her grandfather, Erik Palmstierna, was foreign minister in Sweden's first social democratic government. Her mother was of Jewish descent. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lived in Rotterdam and Berlin with her mother during World War II. After the war, she studied art in Amsterdam and Paris before moving to Sweden where she has remained since. From 1948 to 1952, she was married to the Swedish graphic artist Mark Christopher Sylwan. In 1964 she married German author Peter Weiss. They remained married until his death in 1982. Palmstierna-Weiss began her career as a ceramist in the late 1940s and 1950s. She began a romantic relationship with Weiss after the end of her first marriage, and that relationship led to a new artistic interest initially in acting and then scenic and costume design where her artistic focus ultimately settled. She appeared as an actress in several of Weiss's early experimental films. She won a Tony Award in 1966 for her costume designs in Weiss's Marat/Sade, which were later used in the 1967 film version directed by Peter Brook. In 2009, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Palmstierna-Weiss died in Stockholm on 20 November 2022, at the age of 94.
Identity
Identity
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss is recorded as writer, ceramicist, sculptor, costume designer and scenographer.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1928
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss born at Lausanne.
2022
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss died at Stockholm.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Lausanne.
Birth place
Stockholm.
Death place
Reception
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss is recorded as having received Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Tony Award for Best Costume Design and Professor.
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss received Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Tony Award for Best Costume Design and Professor.
Literature
Literature
Literature
A Conversation between Peter Weiss, Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss, and Anita Brundahl (1982), The New Trial, 2001
Ein Brief von Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss an Jürgen Schutte, Undercurrents, 2019
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Roger Ellis. Peter Weiss in Exile: A Critical Study of His Works. University of Michigan Press. 21. 1987.
- 2.Glenn Loney. Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss discusses designs and directors. Theatre Crafts. Theatre Crafts Associates. 12. 39–44. 1978.
- 3."Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss" , verbrecherverlag.de (in German)
- 4.Robert Cohen. Understanding Peter Weiss. University of South Carolina Press. 1993.
- 5.Irene Armbruster. Drama eines Lebens: Die schwedische Feministin. Aufbau. 18ff. October 2008. 0004-7813.
- 6.Scenografen Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss är död. Dagens Nyheter. 21 November 2022.
- 7.Dramaten Sörjer Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss. Dramaten.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Citizenship
1- SwedenPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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