Riann Coulter traces the path of the sculptor Hilary Heron, whose retrospective exhibition is showing at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Hilary Heron was born in Dublin in 1923, shortly after the formation of the Irish Free State. Her parents were Presbyterians from Co Armagh and, at the time of her birth, the family was based in Coleraine, Co Derry, where her father was a bank manager. They moved several times before settling in New Ross, Co Wexford, and Hilary and her three brothers were educated there. She then attended the National College of Art, producing work influenced by British Modernist sculptors including Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein and Barbara Hepworth. While still a student, Heron exhibited in the first Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA) in 1943 and won the Taylor Art Award three years in a row. In 1948 she was the first recipient of the Mainie Jellett Travelling Scholarship. The seven sculptures she submitted were praised for the freshness of their conception, and A Pint of Plain is your Only Man (1947) was singled out for its ‘eloquent rhythms evoking the very atmosphere of the subject’. The £250 prize enabled Heron to spend a year living in France and Italy, where she came under the influence of Modernist sculptors including Alberto Giacometti and Constatin Brâncuși. Arriving in Paris by motorbike, Heron’s guide to the city was Samuel Beckett, to whom she was related by marriage. Beckett introduced her to his artist friends and her diary from the period records that she spent her days visiting museums and galleries.
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