Personal Chronology
Life
1927 25 May: Born in Berlin, daughter of writer, art critic and man of letters Bruno E. Werner and Katharina Werner (Kluger)
1930 9 March: sister Sibylle born
1932-40 Attends schools in Berlin: Strahlersche Privatschule; Mommsen Schule; Bismarck Lyceum
1939-45 War years
1940-41 Evacuated to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria
1941-42 Moves back to Berlin; confirmation and dancing lessons
1943-45 Evacuated to Klosterneuburg, Vienna
1945-50 Becomes student of Professor Otto Hitzberger in Partenkirchen, Upper Bavaria. Family lives in Grainau, Upper Bavaria
1946 Carves her first Madonna and accepts her first commission from her patron, Willi Daume
1949-50 Visits Ireland
1950 Woodcarving of St Brendan Discovering America exhibited at Annual Exhibition of RHA and sold
1951 10 September: marries sculptor Ian Stuart
1951-61 Lives in Laragh Castle, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow with Iseult Stuart (neé Gonne), Francis Stuart’s mother ‘Ninni’ and Catherine Stuart, sister of Ian
1952 2 June: first daughter, Aoibheann, born
1953 7 November: Siobhan, second daughter, born
1955 7 December: third daughter, Aisling, born
1960 Receives Joint Macaulay Scholarship. Attends classes with husband at the HFBK Berlin with Professor Bernhard Heiliger and remains in Berlin for one year
1961 Family moves to Otranto Place, Sandycove, Co. Dublin
1964 Father dies
1966 Her sculptural representation of the Yeats poem The Fiddler Of Dooney is unveiled at the official opening of the Stillorgan Shopping Centre – the first of its kind in Ireland
1968 Official unveiling by Gulf Oil of Saint Brendan Discovering America in copper, which stands 21 feet high facing the sea at Bantry Bay; a joint work with husband Ian Stuart
1970-71 Family lives in Berlin
1971 Badly injured in road accident and hospitalised; convalesces for four months
1972 Separates from husband after period of estrangement and return to Ireland. Completes Stations of the Cross for Ballintubber Abbey, a work that sticks out in the artist’s mind as she felt it was an ‘honour to have work in a church with such a history, a place even worshipped throughout the Penal days’. Included in the Baedeker Guidebook.
1973 Mother dies
1976 Official unveiling at Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, of Pangur Bán, a sculpture group inspired by the Irish ninth-century poem and carved from pitchpine that was over three hundred years old
1987 Pope John Paul II And Children (bronze) is made for Maynooth Library as monument to the 1979 papal visit
1988 10 September: daughter Siobhan (Pussy) dies in a car accident and is buried in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, leaving three young boys who move to Oslo with their Norwegian father
1993 History of Art student, Alison FitzGerald completes her Master’s (MA) thesis on Imogen’s work
1998 Liebe Fragt Nicht Warum is broadcast on German television, a 45-minute documentary on Imogen’s life and work
1998 Portrait head of former President May Robinson is exhibited in Aras an Uachtaráin after an official unveiling
2000-Now Continues to give lectures in Paris, China and across Ireland
2002 A retrospective exhibition of her work is held at the RHA. Imogen also receives an honorary doctorate degree from Trinity College
2004-05 Receives honorary doctorate degrees from UCD and NUI
2010 President of Ireland Mary McAleese presents Imogen with the McAuley Medal, the highest award that can be bestowed by Mary Immaculate College
2012 Miriam O'Callaghan interviews Imogen and her daughter, Aisling Law, on RTÉ Radio 1
2015 Elected Saoi of Aosdana
2018 Awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
2020 Pangar Ban opening ceremony in Aras Urcharterain
2022 Stele: standing stone unveiled by President Michael D Higgins
Selected Exhibitions
1949-present Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition
1959 Joint exhibition (with Ian Stuart) of church art, Dawson Gallery, Dublin
1962 Salzburg Biennale ‘Christliche Kunst der Gegenwart’
1963 Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Dublin
1972 Oireachtas Art Exhibition, Dublin
1973 Retrospective exhibition in conjunction with Oireachtas Exhibition, Trinity College, Dublin. Receives an award
1974 ‘Sacred Art in the Home’, Barnhill Gallery, Co. Dublin
1980 ‘Sacred Art for the Home’, Foxrock Church, Dublin
1983 National Self-Portrait Collection, Limerick. Self-portrait Exhibition, National Gallery, Dublin
1987 ‘Irish Women Artists from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day’, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin
1988 Figurative Image, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
1988-99 Aer Rianta Gateway To Art, Dublin Airport
1990-98 Royal Hibernian Academy Banquet Exhibition
1992 Represented in The Great Book of Ireland, Birmingham Tower, Dublin Castle
1992 Retrospective Exhibition, The Square, Tallaght, Co. Dublin
1996 ‘Women Sculptors’, Solomon Gallery, Co. Dublin
1997 ‘Little Sculptors’, Solomon Gallery, Co. Dublin.
1997-98 Christmas Group Exhibition, Solomon Gallery, Co. Dublin
2017-2018 Exhibition at Kylemore Abbey Notre Dame Global Center, Co. Galway
2022 Featured in Making In Symposium in collaboration with Joseph Walsh Studio, Co Cork
Awards and Distinctions
1960 Travelling Scholarship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Berlin
1966 Architectural Award, Southampton
1972 Oireachtas Art Exhibition Award
1974 to date Assessment for various institutions, including the National College of Art and Design
1981 Elected member of Aosdána.
1982 Elected Associate Member of Royal Hibernian Academy
1983-91 Elected committee member of Aosdána
1989-91 Member of adjudicating panel of the Business Face of Dublin Award, organised by the Chamber of Commerce
1990 Elected full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy
1993 Attends the ‘1st Conference of the National Academies of Fine Arts of Europe’ as a representative of the RHA at Santiago de Compostela in Spain
1994 Registers in the Artifacts Artists Register, a comprehensive listing of artists, craftspeople and photographers in Ireland, which is accessible worldwide
1997 Receives the D. O’Sullivan Graphic Supplies Ltd Award (RHA)
1999 Receives the E.S.B. Keating McLoughlin Award (RHA)
2000 Elected Professor of Sculpture by the RHA
2002 Receives honorary doctorate degree from Trinity College Dublin.
2004 Receives honorary doctorate degree from UCD
2005 Receives honorary doctorate degree from NUI Maynooth
2005 President of Ireland Mary McAleese unveils Flame Of Human Dignity at the Centre Culturel Irelandais, Paris
2010 Presented with McAuley Medal at Mary Immaculate College by the President of Ireland Mary McAleese
2014 Ongoing permanent exhibition of Imogen Stuart sculptures at Mary Immaculate College, a university-level College of Education and the Liberal Arts in Co. Limerick
2015 Elected Saoithe in Aosdána. The honour of Saoi is bestowed for singular and sustained distinction in the creative arts.
2018 Awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
