| Collection Description | Collection contains the Schurmann family gift, donated in May 2018, comprising sketchbooks and ephemera pertaining
to Gerda Frömel. Gerda Frömel was born in Czechoslovakia, 1931. Her family moved to Germany after 1945, where
she studied art at Stuttgart, Darmstadt and Munich. She married a sculptor Werner Shürmann in Germany and moved
to Ireland where he had been given a job in the National College of Art teaching metal work. Frömel created numerous
works in stone and metal. She exhibited in many shows such as the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Oireachtas exhibition
and Contemporary Sculpture. She had a solo exhibition in The Dawson Gallery in 1970 wherein a her talent of stone
carving, casting and drawing were on display. She also completed two large scale commissions during the late 1960s
to 1970s. Sails was commissioned for Carroll's Factory outside Dundalk in Co. Louth. It is presently outside Dundalk
IT. The second notable commission was Setanta for the Setanta Centre. She created these works in a foundry that she
and her husband built near their home in Rathfarnham. Gerda Frömel died tragically in a drowing accident at the age
of 44. She was survived by her four sons. In 2015, the Irish Museum of Modern Art hosted a retropsective on her life
consisting of her sculptural works, her drawings and archival material. It was a part of a series titled IMMA Modern
Masters which highlighted under recognised artists in recent history [NGI]. |
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