Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen facts for kids

Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen (born April 4, 1922, died December 22, 2014) was a talented German artist. She was known for her paintings, sculptures, and drawings. Her art was inspired by a style called Informalism, which focuses on abstract shapes and textures.

Her Life and Art Journey

Early Life and First Steps in Art

Ruth Schmidt was born on Norderney Island in Germany in April 1922. Her father was a military officer, and her mother enjoyed painting as a hobby. Ruth spent her early years on the island. A painter named Hans Trimborn often visited her family.

When she was five, Ruth became ill with tuberculosis. Spending a lot of time in the hospital made her love for drawing and painting grow even more. In 1930, her family moved to Wilhelmshaven. They lived there until 1941, when they moved to a family home in Stockhausen because of World War II bombings.

Becoming an Artist

Ruth first trained to be a handicrafts teacher, finishing her studies in Hildesheim in 1941. She then taught in Melle and Lesum. In 1944, she received a special grant to study fine arts. She joined a master class program at an Art Academy, which had moved to a castle for safety during the war.

The war ended before she could finish the course. Back home in Stockhausen, Ruth started painting portraits for the Allied Forces to earn money. Her younger brother remembered that their attic became like an artist's studio. Ruth shared the space with her cousin Giselher Neuhaus, who was a sculptor, and her older brother Albert, who was also a painter.

In 1946, she took another drawing course and joined a local artist group called Oberhessischer Künstlerbund. She began to show her portraits and watercolor landscapes in cities like Dillenburg, Giessen, Marburg, and Wetzlar.

Finding Her Style

Ruth's art started to get noticed. She began signing her work "R. Schmidt Stockhausen," which made her name stand out. In 1952, a wealthy builder named Hermann Lindemann became her supporter. He helped Ruth and her cousin Giselher Neuhaus get apartments in Bad Godesberg, near Bonn.

She also worked as an illustrator for his publishing company and created sculptures with her cousin. During the 1950s, Ruth traveled to Paris, Rome, and Venice. She met important artists from around the world.

Leading artists of Informalism greatly influenced her. Her art began to change, moving towards abstract shapes and using different materials in her paintings.

Family Life and Continued Art

In 1958 and 1959, Ruth showed her art at exhibitions by the Deutscher Künstlerbund. She was invited twice, and a third invitation would have meant she joined this important group. However, in 1959, she married a doctor named Hans-Dieter Hentschel and moved to Bad Nauheim.

After her son Klaus Hentschel was born in 1961, Ruth started painting large abstract oil paintings again. She continued to exhibit her work often. In the next ten years, she also created large sculptures. From 1976 to 1979, she taught a course on free painting in Frankfurt am Main.

Return to Her Roots

When her son finished school in 1983, Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen felt free to leave Bad Nauheim. She returned to her home region of East Frisia. She turned the barn of an old farmhouse in Dornum into a summer art studio. This place was very close to Norderney Island, where she was born.

In this studio, she created many more large abstract paintings and sculptures. Her coastal surroundings greatly influenced her unique style of Informalism.

Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen is one of the few women artists recognized in the Informalism movement. Throughout her long career, which lasted eight decades, she created over 4,700 documented artworks. She also participated in more than 300 exhibitions. After she passed away at 92, her ashes were scattered in the North Sea near the island of Spiekeroog. Her art and property are now part of a museum managed by the Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen Stiftung. This foundation helps keep her artistic legacy alive.

Awards and Honors

• Guest artist at the Deutscher Künstlerbund in 1958 and 1959.
• Exhibited at the Biennale 6 in Paris, at the Palais de Louvre, in 1957.
• Received an award in Rome in 1972 and a medal from the Parisian Fédération Internationale Culturelle Féminine in Athens in 1973.
• Won the Kunstpreis Dornum (Art Prize Dornum) in 2003.

Groups She Joined

• Oberhessischer Künstlerbund (1946–1973) and Gruppe 9 (1974–1983)
• GEDOK Bonn (since 1954) and Künstlergruppe Bonn (since 1955)
• Berufsverband Bildender Künstler (BBK) Frankfurt (1961–83) and BBK Ostfriesland (1983–2014)
• Founding member of Soroptimist International, Club Ostfriesland – Norden (1994)
• Kunstverein Norden and Kunstkreis Dornum