in the Bonn suburb of Bad Godesberg. She closed a contract with his publishing house Dikreiter as illustrator and executed various other commissions, such as sculptures together with her cousin. During the 1950s Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen traveled to Paris, Rome, Venice, and other Italian towns, making important acquaintances in the international art world. Leading proponents of Informalism greatly influenced her approach and there was a clear shift toward abstraction and material painting. In 1958-59 Ruth participated in the exhibitions of the Deutscher Künstlerbund in Essen and Wiesbaden – a third invitation would have meant she had joined their august ranks. But that never came to be, because she met and married a medical doctor, Hans-Dieter Hentschel (1921–2016) in 1959 and moved away to the spa town of Bad Nauheim. Large abstract oil paintings reappeared on her easel soon after the birth of her son Klaus Hentschel in 1961 and her exhibiting activities continued unabated. Large sculptures emerged in the following decade. She also taught a course in free painting at the Kunstschule Westend (now called Academy of Visual Arts) in Frankfurt am Main 1976–1979. When her son finished his schooling, Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen felt free to leave Bad Nauheim and return to her native turf East Frisia in 1983. She converted the barn of an old farmhouse in Dornum on the German coast—within eyeshot of Norderney—into a summer atelier, where many more large abstract paintings -- her own variant of Informalism -- and sculptures took shape under the influence of her coastal surroundings. Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen is one of very few women among the acknowledged Informalist artists. Throughout her creative period spanning eight decades, Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen produced more than 4,700 documentable works of art and participated in well over 300 exhibitions. After her death at the age of 92, her ashes were scattered in the North Sea by the shores of the neighboring island of Spiekeroog. The artist's estate and property are now part of a museum managed by the Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen Stiftung, a not-for-profit foundation for the furtherance of her legacy in the fine arts. Distinctions Guest exhibitor of the Deutscher Künstlerbund in 1958 and 1959 Exhibitor at the Biennale 6 in Paris, Palais de Louvre, Pavillon de Marsan, 1957 Lauditory mention in Rome 1972 and Medaille, awarded by the Parisian Fédération Internationale Culturelle Féminine in Athens 1973 Kunstpreis Dornum 2003 Memberships Oberhessischer Künstlerbund (1946–1973), Gruppe 9