Animal and Hunter

Artist Gerda J Frömel (1931 - 1975)

Datec. 1963

MediumBronze

Dimensions48 x 56 x 7.5 cm

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the Contemporary Irish Art Society, 1964. © The Estate of Gerda J Frömel.

Object number1235

DescriptionGerda Frömel's premature death at the age of 44 meant that her output was limited. Nevertheless, the quality of her work remains unsurpassed in its sensitivity to materials. Alabaster, bronze, marble, slate, steel, aluminium under her hand each revealed their innate character which Fromel ingeniously held in tension in the realisation of each piece. The influence of Brancusi is perceptible in her heads, often of a sleeping child, where forms are insinuated to the point of near abstraction.

Animal and Hunter is one of a series of works from the early 1960s invoking nature with reference to birds, trees, streams and waves. The form of the bronze itself suggests a nestling wild animal. On it is lightly etched the figure of a recumbent deer in a landscape evoked by the interplay of textures and patina which also makes the piece look worn and vaguely ritualistic. The hunter's presence is unarticulated but pervasive. As with all of Fromel's work, the surface attracts a play of light that seems to cling to forms rather than define them. Fromel settled in Ireland in 1956 after studying in Stuttgart, Darmstadt and Munich and regularly exhibited in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. She was married to Werner Schurmann with whom she had four sons.

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