Imogen Stuart facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Imogen Stuart
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Imogen Stuart in 2011
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| Born |
Imogen Werner
25 May 1927 |
| Died | 25 March 2024 (aged 96) |
| Occupation | Sculptor |
Imogen Stuart (née Werner; 25 May 1927 – 25 March 2024) was a German-Irish sculptor. She was one of Ireland's best-known sculptors with work in public and private collections throughout Europe and the U.S.
Stuart was awarded the Mary McAuley medal in 2010 by President Mary McAleese, who paid tribute to her "genius", crafting "a canon of work that synthesises our complex past, present images and possible futures...as an intrinsic part of the narrative of modern Irish art, of Ireland."
Life and career
Born Imogen Werner in Berlin on 25 May 1927, she was the daughter of the art critic and author Bruno E. Werner and his wife as Katharina Klug. She grew up in wartime Berlin, where she took up drawing and sculpting at a young age, encouraged by her father who played an important role in providing a forum for Bauhaus artists through his cultural magazine die neue linie. After the war, he served as Cultural Attaché for the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, DC. Imogen knew very little about her Jewish origins until after the war.
In 1945, Stuart began to study under Otto Hitzberger, who taught her modelling, carving, and relief work using different materials. In 1948, she met her future husband, Irishman Ian Stuart there, who also studied with Hitzberger. He was a grandson of Maud Gonne. In 1949, the young couple moved to Ireland. They married in 1951 and took up residence in Laragh Castle near Glendalough.
Stuart was elected Saoi by the Aosdána in 2015.
Imogen Stuart died from bone cancer on 25 March 2024, at the age of 96.
Works
Stuart worked in wood, bronze, stone, steel, clay and terracotta. As the most prolific sculptor for both Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland churches her works are found across the country. Her best-known sculptures include the monumental sculpture of Pope John Paul II in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth and the carved altar in the Honan Chapel in Cork.
Nevertheless, her work extends beyond the Church, including a commissioned bust of ex-President Mary Robinson now in Áras an Uachtaráin (the presidential residence in Dublin), the Flame Of Human Dignity at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; collections of silver, gold and bronze jewellery, drawings, monumental works in wood, stone, concrete, bronze and other media.
"Within the sharply defined limits of material, subject, space, size and money given, I learned to develop within myself a great freedom of expression. My life is full of gifts or minor miracles. I never intellectualize – the eyes and senses dictate my hands directly. Once the work has been completed a symbolism becomes so obviously and profoundly evident that I have to regard it as supernatural".
A book on her work and life was published in 2002 (Imogen Stuart, Four Courts Press), with an introduction by the art critic Brian Fallon and a personal tribute by the historian Peter Harbison.
A sculpture within the town square of Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare is the work of Stuart.
Mary Immaculate College
The Sisters of Mercy commissioned three major pieces from Stuart in 1958. Thereafter, further pieces were added to the College collection where 15 pieces of Imogen's artwork are on display.
Awards and Accolades
A professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, she was also a member of Aosdána, and received honorary doctorates from Trinity College Dublin (2002), University College Dublin (2004), and NUI Maynooth (2005).
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