Imogen Stuart
Imogen Stuart (born 1927) is a sculptor.
Described by Brian Fallon as a ‘woman of two worlds – German by birth, upbringing and artistic training, but also Irish by adoption involvement and sympathy’, Imogen Stuart is one of Ireland’s best-known artists with major works sited throughout the country. Her sculptures have been displayed in public places across Ireland and especially in churches. Thousands of shoppers and children flock around her ‘Fiddler of Dooney’ figures in the Stillorgan shopping centre where youth, innocence and joy are exuberantly expressed; UCD students will be familiar with the Pangur Bán sculpture in wood at Belfield; and many people have passed the landmark arch in the square in Ballymore Eustace. There’s the striking Arch of Peace in Cavan town, or her three small, yet life-like school going children at Tyrellspass, Co Westmeath. This sculpture is a memorial to the old IRA veterans of the area who had fought in the War of Independence. She persuaded the organising committee to sponsor a statue of children, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the fight for freedom, rather than another statue of a soldier.
But it is her ecclesiastical commission work for which she is best known. These include the Stations of the Cross in Muckross, Ballintuber Abbey and Firhouse, Tallaght; the interiors of Castleknock church and Burt Church (which was subsequently voted ‘Irish Building of the 20th Century’); and the enormous bronze of Pope John Paul II in Maynooth; the bronze reliefs in Galway Cathedral; the Madonna in the Lady’s Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral; the Lough Derg Crucifixion scene, to name but a few.
The eldest daughter of Germany’s leading art critic of the thirties, she was born into a cultured Berlin family and began to sculpt from a very early age. Her memories are of a happy, almost fairytale-like childhood, though from the mid 1930’s it was affected by the rise of Nazism in Germany and at one stage her father, Bruno E. Werner was forced to go underground when it was discovered that he had had a Jewish mother. Imogen, together with her mother and sister were evacuated to Bavaria and later to Vienna, where they were reunited just after the war.
From her teenage years, Imogen was interested in sculpture, and in 1945 she became a pupil of the expressionist sculptor Otto Hitzberger, who was a retired professor from the renowned Hochschule fur Bildener Kunste in Berlin. He taught her modelling, carving, relief work and how to handle different types of wood and stone.
In 1948 a young Irishman came to study sculpture with Hitzberger – he was Ian Stuart, the son of writer Francis Stuart and Iseult Gonne, the daughter of Maud Gonne. Imogen visited Ireland with him in 1949 where she became interested in Irish saints and scholars, such as St Brigid and St Kevin, and their connection to nature. Although she had been raised a Lutheran, she decided to convert to Catholicism and was subsequently rebaptised and reconfirmed. Imogen and Ian married in 1951 and lived in Laragh Castle near Glendalough. They had three daughters, Aoibheann, Siobhan and Aisling. Imogen and Ian separated in 1972, and her daughter Siobhan died in a car accident in 1988.
She received many commissions and also regularly exhibited at the annual RHA and Living Art exhibitions. A member of Aosdana since 1981, she was also elected a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1990 and Professor of Sculpture by the RHA in 2000. A retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the RHA in 2002. She has received the Oireachtas art exhibition award (1972) and the ESB Keating McLoughlin award at the RHA annual exhibition (1999), among others. She has also received honoris causa from Trinity College (2002), UCD (2004) and NUI Maynooth (2005). Imogen is closely associated with portrait commissions and her most well-known sitter was former President Mary Robinson which was commissioned for Aras an Uachtarain in 1998. She exhibited unique wood carvings, bronzes sculptures, wall reliefs and important maquette studies for some of her major religious commissions. Whether the pieces are sacred or secular, small or large, in wood, bronze or stone, her superb craftsmanship and soulful humanity still shine through.
[edit] Mary Immaculate College
Mary Immaculate College The Sisters of Mercy commissioned three major pieces in 1958. Since then further pieces have been added to the College collection where 15 pieces of Imogen's artwork are on display. A meditation room in the College's newest building has been designed to display "Window on the World".
Friday September 3rd, 2010 marked a momentous day for Mary Immaculate College when Uachtarán na hÉireann, Mary McAleese, visited the campus to present the McAuley Medal to Imogen, in honour of her lifetime contribution to the arts in Ireland.
The McAuley Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the College. It is named in memory of Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy.
[edit] Works
She works in wood, bronze, stone, steel, clay and terracotta. Her best known works are probably the monumental Pope John Paul II in St Patrick's College Maynooth and the carved altar in the University College Cork chapel. She is clearly the most prolific sculptor for the Church in Ireland, and her works can be seen in chapels and churches across the country. Nevertheless, her work extends well beyond the Church, including a commissioned bust of the ex-President Mary Robinson which sits in Áras an Uachtaráin (the presidential residence in Dublin). A book on her work and life was published in 2002 (Imogen Stuart, Four Courts Press), with an introduction by Brian Fallon and a personal tribute by Peter Harbison.
A professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, she is also a member of Aosdána.
[edit] External links
- Aosdána biographical note
- Imogen Stuart Sculptor, Four Courts Press 2002
- Works by Imogen Stuart at Mary Immaculate College
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