SEÁN KISSANE DISCUSSES AN EXHIBITION AT IMMA THAT CELEBRATES THE LEGACY OF AN IRISH MODERNIST SCULPTOR.
Currently showing at IMMA, ‘Hilary Heron: A Retrospective’ celebrates the pioneering work of Dublin-born modernist sculptor, Hilary Heron (1923 – 1977). This is the first major exhibition of Heron’s work since 1964 and it brings together artworks from national and international collections. Part of the IMMA Modern Masters series, this retrospective seeks to correct the critical neglect of Heron’s work in the decades following her death.
It had been the intention of Riann Coulter and I to curate a retrospective of Heron more than ten years ago. However, her work had been so dispersed, and so little research had been done, that it seemed like an impossible task. This project became possible through the work undertaken by Billy Shortall, first with his master’s thesis, and secondly through research commissioned by IMMA to trace Heron’s extant works, draw together primary and secondary sources, and document the trajectory of her biography and artistic career.

The exhibition at IMMA is set out over several rooms, each articulating a different theme: Biography, Early Work, Venice Biennale, Flight, Primitivism, the Male Body, and the Female Body.1 The displays articulate the full breadth of Heron’s sculptural practice, including wood carving, stone carving, welding in different metals, lead reliefs, beaten metal reliefs, and encased stone assemblages, as well as her graphic practices of drawing and etching.2
Heron was never beholden to a single style or material, but she continually innovated and stretched the possibilities of her sculptural medium. Heron won many awards, including the Taylor Scholarship three years running. She was included in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, found commercial representation with the Waddington Galleries, and was lauded in the press as Ireland’s foremost modern sculptor. Heron co-represented Ireland at the 1956 Venice Biennale alongside painter Louis le Brocquy (1916 – 2012). For this retrospective, we present a partial restaging of Heron’s Venice Biennale participation.3
In her essay for the accompanying monograph, Riann Coulter reads Heron’s work through a feminist lens, finding in these sculptures a common thread of female unruliness and defiance. Coulter contrasts Heron’s portrayal in the media as a beautiful, elegant, feminine woman with another reality conveyed in her archive – that of a woman who worked with her hands at the hard labour of carving and welding, who used the money from a modelling contract to buy a motorbike and travel across Europe on her own, and who always struck out on an independent path.
The exhibition concludes with reflections on a woman who pursued an artistic medium traditionally associated with men and masculinity. Although she carved out a successful career in her lifetime, problems of historiography and how the art market values the work of women less than that of men, meant that her work largely fell into obscurity until now.

The Lower Ground Galleries contain ‘Redux: Contemporary Irish sculptors at Venice’, curated by Sara Damaris Muthi, featuring the work of Siobhán Hapaska, Eva Rothschild, and Niamh O’Malley – female sculptors who represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2001, 2019, and 2022 respectively. ‘Redux’, meaning revival, signals Heron’s enduring legacy in proximity to contemporary sculptural practice.
Seán Kissane is Curator of Exhibitions at IMMA. ‘Hilary Heron: A Retrospective’ continues at IMMA until 28 October 2024, and will be presented at F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio from 15 November 2024 to 15 February 2025.
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1 At F.E. McWilliam Gallery, the architecture will necessitate a different layout, but the key thematics will be retained in the display.
2 The checklist of works at IMMA and F.E. McWilliam is different, with a slightly smaller number of works travelling to Banbridge. Sketchbooks, journals, and smaller objects, such as jewellery and other domestic items, form part of the biographical display.
3 We are grateful to Pierre le Brocquy who provided the Venice installation views from the le Brocquy archive, which facilitated the identification of works shown by Heron.