Gerda Frömel 1931 - 1976

her mature work was inspired. When she first arrived in Ireland, Frömel began to contribute to various group shows, including the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. She worked initially in marble, onyx, slate or alabaster, but later also in bronze, aluminium and gold. She excelled as both a carver and a modeller and was a fastidious craftsman, devoted to finish and technical perfection as the delicacy of her work suggests. One of her main concerns was with the intrinsic nature of the materials with which she worked. Very versatile, Frömel was able to slip from abstract to representational and from delicate, softly modelled or carved heads and figures to austere, almost bare pieces. She was particularly fascinated with circular, oval and disc-shaped forms. Latterly, she had expressed the desire to further explore the challenge of large scale pieces and had begun to devote much time to large public commissions. In 1962 she won the sculpture prize in the Irish Church Art Exhibition and the following year was awarded an Arts Council scholarship for sculpture. She had her first one-man show in Dublin in 1964. In 1970 she won the Waterford Glass Company Award at the Oireachtais. She won many other awards and received commissions from both Ireland and Germany including one for the P.J. Carroll building in Dundalk and the Regional Technical College in Galway. She was forty-five and the mother of four boys when, tragically, she lost her life in a drowning accident. Fromel's work featured in 'Irish Women Artists: 1870-1970' exhibition. Please click here to view the catalogue.