Modern irish art collection

The Modern

Irish Art Collection

Athlone Institute of Technology

The Modern

Irish Art Collection


Catalogue compiled by Kate Bateman and Harman Murtagh

Athlone Institute of TechnologyInstitiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Luain

First published in 1996 by

Athlone Regional Technical College

Athlone

Ireland

Second edition published in 2000 by


Athlone

Ireland

© Athlone Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording

or otherwise without prior permission

of the publishers.

ISBN 0-9528142-0-X

Front cover:

Brian Ferran: Colmcille Theme 12Back cover:

John Behan: Maeve’s army

Photographs by Brian Redmond AIPPA, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary and

Joe O’Sullivan LIPPA, Tullamore, Co. Offaly

Designed & printed by Premiere Print telephone 01 839 4376

List of artists and illustrations four

Acknowledgements six

Abbreviations six

Preface by the Director of Athlone Institute of Technology seven

Foreword by Her Excellency President Mary McAleese eight

Introduction nine

Catalogue to the collection twelve

Contents

four

Robert Ballagh Print of Delacroix 13Maree Bannon Rainstorm over Blackwater Bog 14Jayne Barry Tomatoes 15John Behan Maeve’s army 16

Fish 16Moya Bligh Surfaces B 17Brian Bourke La bella barmaid I 18Deborah Brown Fibreglass form painted yellow on black 19George Campbell Samurai 20Tom Carr Snowscene 21Michael Casey Bird of the wide and sweeping wing/thy home is high in heaven 22Carey Clarke June morning Bourgougnague Lot et Garonne 23Petronelle Clifton-Browne Regatta at Dromineer 24Barrie Cooke Sleeping figure 25Vicki Crowley Setanta hurling 26Jack Cudworth Iveagh Stores 27Michael Cullen Lovers in Las Vegas 28Rosaleen Davey Box 29

Maternity 29Gerald Davis Thaw 30

Off Baltimore 30John Doherty Angles 31Richard Dwyer Dun Laoghaire dawn 32Felim Egan Shoreline (g) 33

Trees 33Maura Farrell Evening interiors 34

Interiors 34Michael Farrell Storm in a teacup 35

The little tent of blue that sometimes prisoners call the sky 35L’alcoll de serpent 35

Brian Ferran Colmcille theme 12 36Mike Fitzharris Beggar 37Barry Fitzpatrick Street scene 38Paul Funge No regrets Mr Funge no. 8 39

Zamora 39Dr David Fenton 39

Martin Gale The artichoke window 40Outback 40Armchair traveller 40

Neil Gall Construction 41

List of Artists and Illustrations

five

Terence Gayer Sojourn 42Mitsy Gerson Power cut 43

Hop 43Alice Berger Hammerschlag Silent emergence 44James Hanley After Duchamp 45Alice Hanratty Still life with bottles 46Charles Harper Heliocentric timespot 47

Castigatory 47Ossessione 47

Patrick Harris Nude back study 48Evelyn Healy Looking west 49

A summer day: Dooega, Achill, Co Mayo 49Patrick Hickey Three more pomegranates 50Declan Holloway Etching 51Niamh Keenan The Baily Court Hotel, Howth 52

Bewley’s Café, Mary Street 52Desmond Kinney Horseracing 53John Kirwan Low-light mist, Achill 54Anne Rigney Lally Woman 55

Being 55Alone 55

Nancy Larchet A preponderance of poppies 56Ramie Leahy Plesiosaurus 57Anna Marie Leavy Seasons in Ireland 58Louis le Brocquy Study towards an image of W.B. Yeats: no. 26 59

Untitled the Táin 59James Joyce 60Thomas Kinsella 60Seamus Heaney 60John Montague 60John Millington Synge 61William Butler Yeats 61Francis Stuart 61Samuel Beckett 61

Hector McDonnell Old woman Katale Camp Zaire 62Mother/baby Katale Camp 62

Eileen McDonagh Allegory stone 1991 63Maurice MacGonigal Currachs Connemara 64

Margo McNulty Rediscovering childhood 65Slip 65

Tony Magner Cipher 66Amanda Maguire The Bronx 67Joan Mallon The wooing, the waiting and the doing 68Colin Middleton Birds on wire 69Hazel Moore Taboo 70Brendan Neiland Cumulus 71Noelle Noonan Untitled 72

The diviner 72Pulse 72

Simon O’Donnell Miltonfriedmania 73David Oliver Libération 74Tony O’Malley Obair gan ainm 75Raymond Piper Seated nude 76Jane Proctor Nest 77Patrick Pye Del verbo divino 78

The entombment II 78Padraic Reaney Waiting for Indian corn II 79Chris Reid Yesterday’s todays 80Noreen Rice Which way, which day 81Thomas Ryan Snowy road at home 82Vincent Sheridan Corvids I 83Constance Short Noughts and crosses 84Louis Sinclair Five seagulls 85Donal Teskey Polling day 86Manus Walsh Musicians 87Judith Caulfield Walshe Untitled 88Sheila Walton-Hough Gerry Gray 89Joe Wilson The plate fights back 90Anne Yeats Landscape seen from plane II 91

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Assistance in the preparation of this catalogue has been

generously given by George McCaw, Paul Funge, Muireann

O’Connell, Eileen Black, Paula Campbell, Padraic Dolan, Brid

Dukes, Ciaran MacGonigal, John Taylor, Brian Fallon, Edward

Murphy and the library staff of the National College of Art and

Design, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and many individual

artists.

DIT Dublin Institute of Technology

IELA Irish Exhibition of Living Art

IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art

IT Institute of Technology

NCAD National College of Art and Design Dublin

OPW Office of Public Works

RA Royal Academy

RHA Royal Hibernian Academy

RIAI Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland

RUA Royal Ulster Academy

TCD Trinity College Dublin

UCD University College Dublin

WCSI Water Colour Society of Ireland

six

seven

Athlone Institute of Technology is proud to

publish this second edition of the

catalogue of its modern Irish art collection

to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary

of the foundation of the Institute.

The collection of artworks owned by or on

long-term loan to the Institute comprises

works by many twentieth-century Irish

and non-Irish artists. From the outset the

Institute recognised the need to introduce

the visual arts to its stark modern interior

and thus the collection has been

developed through purchases, loans,

donations and the commissioning of new

works. The collection has enriched the

Institute’s ambience, as a place of work for

staff and students, and also serves to

welcome the Institute’s many visitors.

We are honoured that Her Excellency

President Ms Mary McAleese has

contributed a foreword for this edition.

I am grateful to Dr Harman Murtagh,

Ms Kate Bateman and the staff of the

Institute’s Quality Assurance Office for

their work in the preparation of this

publication.

Professor Ciarán Ó Catháin

Director


Preface

eight

Foreword

I am delighted to have this opportunity to

introduce the second edition of the catalogue

of Athlone Institute of Technology’s modern

Irish art collection.

The first thirty years of the Institute’s

existence have coincided with an awakening

of visual awareness throughout Irish society

which is probably without precedent in our

history. More artists are at work, and more art

is on public exhibition and in private

collections than ever before. Leading Irish

artists are beginning to narrow the lead

enjoyed by Irish poets and other writers in

terms of international recognition - and

rightly so.

The Institutes of Technology are one of the

great success stories of modern Irish

education. They have been a major conduit for

transmitting the values and skills of the

modern business and technological world to

their regions. They have educated, and re-

educated, significant numbers of the

workforce responsible for the transformation

of the Irish economy. The quality and extent of

Athlone Institute of Technology’s collection of

modern art shows a recognition of the

centrality of art, no less than technology, to

the expression of civilisation. The Institute has

a clear understanding of the capacity of art to

challenge and enrich the users of major public

spaces. The monks of Clonmacnoise, the great

medieval centre of learning and culture in the

midlands, would surely have approved!

Many of Ireland’s best-known artists are

represented in the Institute’s collection,

including, I am particularly pleased to note, a

number from my native province of Ulster. The

openness of access to the Institute means that

the art collection can be enjoyed by the public

as much as by staff and students. In this way

it is a major cultural asset to the midlands as

a whole.

Athlone Institute of Technology’s capacity to

accept innovation and change in art mirrors its

response to the rapid pace of modern

technological advance.

I congratulate those who have formed the

collection, and I hope its expansion will

continue.

Mary McAleese

President of Ireland

nine

Introduction Athlone Institute of Technology, then known as the Regional Technical College

Athlone, opened in 1970 as one of a network of new institutions for the provision of

tertiary technological education in Ireland. Initially under County Westmeath

Vocational Education Committee, it became an autonomous institution in 1993. The

Institute is sited on a landscaped campus on the eastern perimeter of Athlone. Its

functional building is a potent symbol of change in an Ireland impatient for

knowledge, training and education. The original two-storey, purpose-built structure

has been greatly extended to cater for increases both in student numbers, and in the

range and level of courses.

The interior of the building is stark. Laboratories, lecture halls, seminar rooms and

workshops lead off long, pale corridors lit through aluminium-framed windows.

Exposed conduits supply the interior strip lighting and other utilities. The extensive

unplastered concrete-block walls offer an ideal hanging space, which is particularly

hospitable to contemporary art. As creativity and the capacity to conceptualise are

equally inherent in the impulses of arts and science,

students of both disciplines are susceptible to order,

beauty and the aesthetic principle. With these ideas

in mind, the Institute embarked on a conscious art-

purchasing policy in 1975. The establishment of the

Arts Council Joint Purchasing Scheme in the mid-

1970s was a major boost to the Institute’s acquisition

programme. From the initial purchase of ten works

the Institute’s collection has now grown to over a

hundred paintings and sculptures by modern artists,

and it is hoped to continue its expansion in the

future. The principal purchasing officer throughout

has been Dr Harman Murtagh, assisted initially by Ms

Marlene Armstrong, both of the School of Business, Management and General

Studies. Dr Murtagh, who is also the curator of the collection, has been responsible

for the hanging of pictures and siting of sculptures.

The collection includes paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture. Many works were

purchased from the Arts Council’s own collection, and some at exhibitions such as

those of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Water Colour Society of Ireland and the

National Maternity Hospital. Others were purchased from galleries, including

Riverrun, Taylor, Lincoln, Artworld and Eakin. A few were acquired directly from the

artist. The sculpture Allegory Stone 1991 by Eileen McDonagh and the portraits,

Dr. Harman MurtaghCurator, Institute Art Collection

ten

Dr David Fenton by Paul Funge and Gerry Gray by Sheila Walton-Hough, were

commissioned.

Some works are held on permanent loan, but in general it is the policy of the

Institute to buy, rather than borrow or seek donations from artists. Works are

purchased within the constraints of a limited budget from the Institute’s own

resources. Additional funding has come from several sources. Forty works were

acquired with the assistance of the Arts Council whose approval was a valuable

monitor of ‘quality control’, especially in the early days. The council’s successive

visual arts officers - Oliver Dowling, Paula McCarthy, Patrick Murphy, John Hunt,

Medb Ruane and Sarah Finlay - have been unfailingly supportive, as was the late Dr

Máire de Paor, while a council member. Half the funding for Allegory Stone 1991, the

sculpture commissioned to mark the twenty-first anniversary of the Institute, was

the generous contribution of Élan Corporation plc, the Athlone-based

pharmaceutical company. The Bank of Ireland Group generously funded the

acquisition of Fish by John Behan in 1999. A tremendously encouraging gesture has

been the presentation by the Institute’s Students’ Union of two works, La bella

barmaid I by Brian Bourke and Taboo by Hazel Moore, a graduate of the Institute.

Mr Richard Whitington and Ms Tina O’Hara have kindly given works on indefinite

loan to the Institute. More than a score of local business and professional

organisations presented the portrait Dr David Fenton to mark the twenty-fifth year

of the sitter’s tenure of office as Institute Principal/Director. Dr Fenton, while

Director, and his successors, Mr James Coyle and Professor Ciarán Ó Catháin, have

fully supported the development of the collection. Caretaker Mr Shay McDermott

contributes skill, commitment and sometimes ingenuity to the physical task of

securing the pictures to the walls, very much in the spirit of his predecessor, the late

Mr Michael O’Connor.

The impulse behind the creation and development of the collection is to exhibit a

broad selection of modern, mainly Irish, artists working in a variety of media. Louis

le Brocquy, Barrie Cooke, Martin Gale, Colin Middleton, Felim Egan, Tony O’Malley,

John Behan and Paul Funge are amongst many well-known names represented, as

are established ‘midlanders’ such as Michael Casey, Maree Bannon and Anne Rigney

Lally.

The Institute is not a gallery, but a place of work and study for 4,000 people. The art

collection is methodically integrated into this bustling and crowded environment.

The sculptures and many of the pictures were acquired for specific locations, and

choice was dictated not alone by aesthetic merit, although this remained the

eleven

overriding factor, but also to some extent by such mundane considerations as size,

shape, mounting behind glass (frequently a negative quality in a building with a

great deal of window light), security factors and dominant pigment. Generally larger

pictures have been preferred to smaller, and bolder expressions to more subtle

statements. In the early years of the collection, with so much wall to fill, it was felt

that the maximum impact could be made by focusing the art on the areas of most

frequent concourse. Now, however, with the growth of the collection, most parts of

the Institute have at least some works on exhibition. The need to increase density in

those areas only modestly served so far is the main priority for the immediate future.

A secondary objective is the acquisition of further works of sculpture for the exterior

landscape and the planned student village.

The midlands is a thinly populated region of provincial Ireland, and Athlone,

predominantly a military and industrial town, is not especially noted for an aesthetic

tradition. In the mid-1970s the arts did not enjoy their current preeminence in Irish

life, nor did they attract today’s level of support from industry and commerce. Initial

response to the formation of the collection, even within the Institute, was therefore

somewhat muted, but there was no hostility to the concept, and in time the

collection has come to be appreciated as part of the Institute’s identity and

philosophy. There is considerable interest in new acquisitions and even an element

of competition about securing them for particular locations. In choosing work, no

single genre is accorded dominance. The collection is eclectic with representational

pictures taking their place beside more challenging symbolic and abstract works.

Visitors to the Institute have been generous in their praise of the collection. The

principal purpose of the original catalogue was to bring its existence to the notice

of a wider public. The second edition will continue to meet that objective, as well as

updating the record by including twenty-seven new works that have been added in

the past five years.

The catalogue is alphabetically arranged, according to the surname of each artist,

with a short biography, accompanied by illustrations of all his/her work in the

collection.

Dimensions of paintings, drawings and prints are given in centimetres, height before

width. Sculpture: height before width before depth. Generally the dates provided

with the art works are of execution. In some cases, where this has been

unascertainable, the date given is that of acquisition.

twelve

Catalogue to the Collection

thirteen

Robert Ballagh

b. Dublin, 1943. Studied architecture at

DIT. Recognised for his imaginative and

hyper-realistic renderings of well-known

literary, historical and established figures.

Began painting 1966 as assistant to

Michael Farrell, then working in hard-

edged abstractions. Represented Ireland

in Paris Biennale 1969, soon becoming

one of Ireland’s most regarded painters.

Evolved from abstraction to figuration in

the form of heavily outlined pastiches of

G oya, Delacroix, Po ussin and Ingre s.

Social commitment and comment,

h u m o u r, wit, parody and pastiche,

together with literary and artis t i c

allusions, are other features of his work.

Produced stage designs for much lauded

plays and shows including Riverdance.

Postage-stamp and currency designer.

Member of Aosdána. Several one-man

shows in Dublin, Britain and France. Rosc

80. Retrospectives Sweden 1983, Dublin

1992. Lit: Ciaran Carty, Robert Ballagh

(Dublin 1986).

PRINTOFDELACROIX 1971

lithograph 48 x 62 cm

purchased: Arts Council 1975

joint ownership with Arts Council

fourteen

Maree Bannon

b. Athlone. Graduated in painting from NCAD

1978. Used mixed media to depict landscape as

central to human existence in her Clonfinlough

series, in which her ‘images grow from direct

experience but her spectrum is wide. Her long

grasses form an inextricable pattern with lowering

skies, which open up with heavy showers of

graphite’ (Hilary Pyle). Has exhibited in Galway

Arts Centre, Athlone, Clare m o r r is, Limerick

University and as part of Trees of life travelling

exhibition in Royal Hospital Kilmainham. A new

series of work traces her journey with Amnesty

International members and a small group of artists

to the borders of former Yugoslavia 1993. Has

recently developed a studio close to Rindoon in

south Roscommon, a locality rich in

archaeological and historical significance.

RAINSTORM OVER BLACKWATER BOG 1993

mixed media on paper 155 x 143 cms

purchased: artist 1994

fifteen

Jayne Barry

b. Cork, 1959. Self-taught. Began painting professionally 1988. Subject matter varies

considerably, and will accept a commission ‘on just about anything’. WCSI 1994. Works

mainly in watercolour, but also in acrylic and pen and ink; her collages and etching are

mostly in zinc. Many of her watercolours are still lifes with attention to light and shade. A

three-dimensional effect is achieved by a deliberate build up of colour. Solo exhibitions in

Kinsale 1990/2. Several commissions for industrial and commercial collections. Has exhibited

and sold at RHA, Solomon Galleries Dublin and Lavit’s Quay Gallery Cork. Work in private

collections in UK, mainland Europe, USA and Ireland. Won award for outstanding work at

the WCSI Exhibition Dublin 1999.

TOMATOES 1994

watercolour 28 x 32 cms

purchased: WCSI 1994

sixteen

John Behan

b. Dublin, 1938. Studied in Dublin, London and Oslo. Sculptor, mainly

in bronze and also recently in aluminium and steel. ‘His work is partly

surrealist and partly in the formalist “truth to material” tradition of

F.E. McWilliam and Edward Delaney’ (Cyril Barrett). His themes focus

on mythological subjects, European as well as Irish, family, birds and

beasts. After ten years of work based on preoccupations with the Táin

he has returned from the heroic to the human dimension with recent

bronze studies of the seaboard people of the west of Ireland. Founder

member of Project Arts Centre 1967; founder and co-director of

Dublin Art Foundry 1967; member of Arts Council 1973-8, Member of

Aosdána RHA 1990. Exhibited in all major Irish Exhibitions from 1960.

Commissions include major corporate sculptures, religious sculptures

and work for US collections. Lit: H Murphy, John Behan: Sculpture and

drawings (Dublin 1969).

MAEVE’S ARMY 1994

bronze 92 x 34 x 34 cms

purchased: RHA 1995

FISH 1999

Steel 160 x 272 x 112 cms


seventeen

Moya Bligh

b. Kilkenny. Educated NCAD. Now lives in

Japan where she normally exhibits. Has

had a solo exhibition in Dublin and also

been represented in group shows. Work

part of permanent collection at Butler

Gallery Kilkenny.

SURFACES B 1987

lithograph 40 x 52 cms

purchased: Graphic Studio Gallery Dublin 1996

eighteen

Brian Bourke

b. Dublin, 1936. Educated NCAD and St Martin’s School of Art London. Has

lived in Galway since mid-1970s. Expressionist studies of rugged Connemara

landscape comprised much of his early work. Later work concentrated on

portraiture, including humorous self-portraits. Chosen to represent Ireland in

the 1965 Paris Biennale, the Lugano Exhibition of Graphics and Rosc 88.

Member of Aosdána. Major retrospective exhibitions Galway 1988 and Royal

Hospital Kilmainham 1989. Has also exhibited in Germany, Switzerland, UK

and USA, as well as throughout Ireland. Numerous articles and books have

been written about the work of the artist. Represented in major public and

private collections.

LA BELLA BARMAID I 1994

acrylic on paper 76 x 56 cms

purchased: Taylor Galleries Dublin 1997

presented by the Students’ Union, Athlone Institute of Technology

nineteen

Deborah Browne

b. Belfast, 1927. Studied in Sidney Smith’s

studio Belfast and later at NCAD. Worked in

Paris and had her first one-woman show in

Belfast 1959. Evo l ved from abstra c t

expressionism to reliefs, and in mid-sixties

began to make the three-dimensional free-

standing work in glass fibre for which she is

perhaps best known. Rosc 80 Cork and Rosc

84 Dublin.

FIBREGLASS FORM PAINTED YELLOW ON BLACK 1967

painted fibreglass on board 213 x 60 x 17 cms



twenty

George Campbell

b. Arklow Co. Wicklow, 1917, d. 1980. Largely

self-taught painter and stained-glass artist from a

well-known family of artists. Co-founded Irish

Exhibition of Living Art 1943. Worked in Belfast

with Gerard Dillon where he exhibited and won

first prize in the Open Painting Exhibition 1962.

RHA 1964. Douglas Hyde Medal 1966. For many

years divided time between London and Malaga

Spain before returning to Ireland. His work is

characterised by its rhythm and harmonious blend

of colour, light and shade. Subjects include

landscapes, still lifes and abstract compositions.

Best remembered for powerful images of his

p a i n t i n gs and dra w i n gs made in Spain.

Exhibitions in Dublin, Belfast, New York, Boston,

London, Gibraltar, Malaga and Capetown. Work

in many leading public and private collections.

SAMURAI 1976

oil on canvas 91 x 75 cms



twenty one

Tom Carr

b. Belfast, 1909, d. 1999. From a prosperous Belfast family. Educated in England at public school and

at the Slade School London, returning to Northern Ireland in 1939. Lived first at Newcastle Co. Down,

and subsequently at Belfast, where he taught for a time at the College of Art. Awarded the RUA gold

medal 1973 and the Oireachtas landscape award 1976. Honorary member of RHA. A representational

painter of children, snow scenes and the countryside. Superb brushwork and mystery of handling paint

are best shown in his watercolours. Exhibited Caldwell Gallery Belfast. Lit: John Hewitt and Mike Catto,

Art in Ulster (Belfast 1991).

SNOWSCENE 1974




twenty two

Michael Casey

b. Lanesborough Co Longford, 1932. Worked and travelled

in UK and North America where the redwood country of

north California had a particular fascination for him. Now

lives in Newtowncashel on the shores of Lough Ree. A self-

taught sculptor, he works with bogwood - pine, oak and

yew. The forms are persuaded to reveal themselves; shapes

in effect emerge from the wood displaying their lines and

light. Since 1982 has exhibited his work in arts weeks,

group and solo shows. One-man show in Galway and

exhibition at Düsseldorf Irish Week 1994. Major works in

public places, and also represented in many collections,

public and private.

BIRD OF THE WIDE AND SWEEPING WING/THY HOME IS HIGH IN

HEAVEN 1996

bog yew 333 x 180 x 110 cms


twenty three

Carey Clarke

b. 1936. Studied painting at NCAD where he

subsequently taught painting and drawing until

1995. President RHA 1992-6 and honora r y

member RA. A highly accomplished painter of

portraits, still life and landscape whose brilliant

techniques provide ‘a calm and lucid ordering of

the world made visible, which having been noted

the artist moves on, marking, describing,

observing...He delineates that which he sees,

calmly and methodically, just as a medieval

painter might have done; without comment,

political or social...rounded, noted, [and] offered

back for the viewer’s approval’ (Ciarán

MacGonigal). Has held a number of solo

exhibitions and exhibited in many group shows,

including the Florence Biennale 2000. Winner of

numerous national awards and represented in

major Irish public and private collections.

JUNE MORNING BOURGOUGNAGUE LOT ET GARONNE 1997


purchased: RHA 1998

twenty four

Petronelle Clifton-Browne

b. Co. Tipperary, 1941. Trained as a Froebel teacher specialising

in art and attended evening classes at NCAD. Now lives on a

farm in Tipperary. WCSI 1967. Her themes are mainly landscape

and animals, but she also paints buildings and monuments in

pen, ink and watercolour. Selected exhibitions and local shows

at Fethard, Moyglass and Cashel.

REGATTA AT DROMINEER 1994



twenty five

Barrie Cooke

b. Chesh i re UK, 1931. Educated at

Harvard University and studied painting

at Skowhegan USA. In Ireland since

1954. Paints in semi-abstra c t

expressionist style. ‘Barrie Cooke is most

often associated with very strong large-

scale works in which the predominant

elements are flow and surge of water in

his beloved streams and lakes and in the

exuberance of growth and change in the

countryside which surrounds him’ (Neil

Monaghan). A parallel activity has been

the creation of ‘boxes’ - perspex boxes

containing arrangements of real and

artificially created bone fragments. A

visually stunning exhibition Boxes: ten

y e a r s in Kilkenny Castle 1981. Firs t

exhibition in New York 1950.

Represented Ireland at Paris Biennale

1963. Joint retrospective with Camille

Souter in Dublin 1971. Rosc 71 and 84.

F i rst prize IELA 1980. Member of

Ao s d á n a . Fe a t u red in many major

collections. Illustrations for Ted Hughes

and also Seamus Heaney’s Bog poems

(1975).

SLEEPING FIGURE 1964




twenty six

Vicki Crowley

b. Malta, 1940. Educated Malta and England. After training in

architectural drawing, travelled extensively in mainland Europe

and Africa before settling in Galway in 1970. Works in oils,

pastels and pigment on silk. Solo exhibitions in Galway,

Killarney, Sligo, Kilcock, Tuam and Connemara reflect a

preoccupation with myths and dreams. Exhibited in Brussels,

Trieste, Brazil, Tenerife, Malta, Muscat and Oman. Her

painting/wall hangings included in public and priva t e

collections worldwide. Collection of poems Oasis in a sea of

dust, which she also illustrated, published in 1992.

SETANTA HURLING 1995

painting on silk 58 x 42 cms

purchased: Artworld Gallery Athlone 1996

twenty seven

Jack Cudworth

b. Leeds UK, 1930. Studied at Leeds College of Art. Has lived in Dublin since 1953, working as designer/

illustrator for various advertising agencies. Also co-leader, on clarinet, of the Butler-Fox jazz band. He is ‘in

love with his materials...delighting in the manipulation of paint to reproduce the different sheen of leaf and

underleaf, the crisp edge of the petal to set before us the scene just as it is’ (Ray Rosenfield). His work widely

admired and collected by fellow artists. He exhibited in RA, RHA, RSA and galleries in Europe and America.

Close association with Caldwell Gallery Belfast.

IVEAGH STORES 1979

oil on board 29 x 34 cms



twenty eight

Michael Cullen

b. Wicklow, 1946. Educated at Central School of Art and Design London and NCAD. Has spent various

periods living and working abroad in Spain, Morocco, USA, Mexico and Berlin. Now lives and works

in Dublin. Member of Aosdána. ‘His paintings strike me as an expression of dissociation, of the limbo

of our pathological fear of living, of the light and colour which has for so long been separated-off

and banished from the everyday of Irish life, the mosaic underneath the dark self-portrait of a grey

family’ (John Waters). Solo exhibitions in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. Group shows in Dublin, London,

New York, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin. Represented in many leading public collections including

IMMA, OPW, Berlin Senate, AIB and Contemporary Art Society.

LOVERS IN LAS VEGAS 1997

carborundum print (6 of 12) 58 x 68 cms


twenty nine

Rosaleen Davey

b. Belfast, 1947. Studied at Belfast

College of Art and Leeds University.

Ad m i n is t ra t i ve and re s e a rc h

assistant National Gallery London

1971-5. Work is often described as

enigmatic, but probably a more

p e rc e p t i ve description is

‘philosophical painting, in love with

v isual knowledge’ (Brian Ly n c h ) .

Member of Aosdána. Has had four

solo exhibitions at Caldwell Gallery

Belfast and also a solo exhibition at

RIAI Dublin 1995. Gro u p

exhibitions include RHA, and also

in Limerick, Cork and Claremorris.

Work represented in several major

I r ish public collections, and in

private collections in Ireland, UK,

USA, Germany and Australia.

BOX 1989

pastel on paper 50 x 38 cms



MATERNITY 1994

pastel on paper 50 x 42 cms

purchased: Holles Street Hospital exhibition 1994

thirty

Gerald Davis

b. Dublin, 1938. Studied art at NCAD at night while acting

in the Pike Theatre. Later, as a ‘mature’ student, studied

art history and literature at TCD. First solo exhibition in

Dublin 1961; has since exhibited throughout Ireland, and

in UK and USA. As painter/entrepreneur opened gallery in

Capel Street Dublin 1970. Douglas Hyde Gold Medal

1977. ‘The strange, dark, ancestral spectres which inhabit

the constantly changing light of the landscapes of Gerald

Davis remind one of those tragicomic voyagers who travel

the world of Jewish artists in whatever medium’ (Wolf

Mankowitz). Represented in many private and public

collections including Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery Dublin,

Crawford Gallery Cork, and Limerick University.

THAW 1976


purchased: Lincoln Gallery Dublin 1981


OFF BALTIMORE 1991



John Doherty

b. Kilkenny, 1949. Studied

architecture at Dublin Institute of

Technology 1968-73. Subsequently

l i ved in Sydney Aus t ralia. His

painting has been described as

‘photo-realist’ and ‘new realist’. Uses

acrylic on canvas. Irish paintings

include panoramic rural landscapes,

views of decaying buildings and

re p re s e n t a t i o ns of sh o p f ro n t s.

Australian paintings depict man in

the urban landscape. Exhibited

many times in Australia in one-man

and group shows, and in Taylor

Galleries Dublin.

thirty one

ANGLES 1978

acrylic on canvas 57 x 77 cms



DUN LAOGHAIRE DAWN 1978




Richard Dwyer

thirty two

b. Ballinasloe Co. Galway, 1939. Won government scholarship to NCAD where

awarded Diploma in Painting. WCSI 1977. Lives in Dublin. Uses a variety of media;

landscapes are generally in watercolour, with figurative work in mixed media and

abstract in oils. Selected exhibitions: RHA, Oireachtas, Pantheon Gallery Dublin,

Gallerie 6650 Homburg-Schwarzenacker Germany, MacAlister’s Gallery Dublin.

Felim Egan

b. Strabane Co. Tyrone, 1952. Educated

Ulster Polytechnic Belfast, Slade School

of Fine Art London and British School

Rome. Solo exhibitions in Dublin,

London, Cologne, Edinburgh, Boston

and IMMA touring exhibition. Group

exhibitions include Rosc 84, Tate Gallery

London, Paris and Sao Paulo Biennales.

Won Premier UNESCO prize for the Arts

in Paris 1993. Outstanding abstractionist

from the younger generation of Irish

a r t ists who has experimented with

sculptural form in a variety of media,

including neon, pure painting, bronze

and painted wood. His quiet, restrained

p a i n t i n gs, usually in muted colours,

‘exhibit a fusion of the contemporary

with the prehistoric, the ultra-modern

with the age-old, the space-age united

with cave-painting’ (Alistair Smith). Work

represented in many leading collections

including the Hugh Lane Municipal

Gallery of Modern Art, IMMA, Ulster

M useum, Arts Council, Euro p e a n

Parliament and OPW. Elected member of

Aosdána in 1986.

thirty three

SHORELINE (G) 1996

mixed media on panel 75 x 75 cms

purchased: Kerlin Gallery Dublin 1996

TREES 1997

lithograph (22 of 30) 42 x 30 cms


Maura Farrell

b. Athlone Co Westmeath. Interested in arts and crafts from

childhood. Member Athlone Arts Group. Works in watercolour

and acrylic. Main subjects are landscapes, interiors and

flowers.

thirty four

EVENING INTERIORS 1996



INTERIORS 1997



Michael Farrell

b. Kells Co Meath, 1940, d. 2000. An

original artist of traditional sk i l ls,

passionate concerns and fertile

imagination. Works in series which, seen

as a whole, show continual, often radical,

transformations. Moved from figuration to

a b s t raction (hard edge) and back to

figuration (with a fluid style). Amongst

best-known are the Presse series of the

early 1970s, in which he found his first

vehicles for expressing his wit and political

concerns, and the Miss O’Murphy series of

the late 1970’s - including, as he claimed,

the first real Irish political picture. Studied

at St Martin’s College of Art London and

Colchester College of Art 1957-61. Won

s e ve ral scholarships and pre s t i g i o us

international awards including laureate as

Irish representative at the Paris Biennale

1967 and gold medal at the Third

Graphics Biennale Florence 1972. After

winning a Carroll’s Prize at IELA Cork

1967, he declared: ‘art is above politics

but not humanity’. Lived in Paris for most

of the 1970s and in Australia for part of

the 1980s. Member of Aosdána. One-man

exhibitions at Paris, Munich, Dublin and

The Hague. Mid-term re t ro sp e c t i ve

Douglas Hyde Gallery Dublin 1979

coincided with publication of an

authoritative monograph on his work by

the critic Cyril Barrett. Exhibited Taylor

Galleries Dublin.

thirty five

STORM IN A TEACUP 1977




THE LITTLE TENT OF BLUE THAT SOMETIMES

PRISONERS CALL THE SKY 1979




L’ALCOLL DE SERPENT 1985




Brian Ferran

b. Derry, 1940. Trained and worked as an art

teacher, before graduating in art history from the

Courtauld Institute London. In a style that just falls

short of total abstraction, his intense use of colour

has echoes of the great illuminated manuscripts of

Early Christian Ireland. His ‘continuing

p reoccupation with the T á i n and Irish

m y t h o l o g y...and with contemporary tribal

manifestations bestow on his oeuvre an impressive

c o h e rence’ (Michael Longley). Numero us solo

exhibitions in Ireland and north America and has

exhibited in group shows in Ireland, Britain and

mainland Europe. Work in many public and private

collections. Has won several prestigious awards.

C u r rently chief exe c u t i ve of Arts Council of

Northern Ireland where he has had an impressive

administrative and publications record.

COLMCILLE THEME 12 1999

acrylic on canvas 76 x 76 cms

purchased: RHA 1999

thirty six

Mike Fitzharris

b. Limerick, 1952. Educated at Limerick School of Art and Hochschule für Bilden Kunst Berlin. A teacher for several years, but is now

a full-time artist. Much of his work is grounded in landscape. Paint is usually scratched into the surface and lines and shapes swirl as

if controlled by natural forces. He favours rich Mediterranean hues. Has received several national awards and grants. Has had solo

exhibitions in Ireland and France, and exhibited in many group shows in Ireland, UK, Belgium and Canada. Represented in a growing

number of public collections throughout Ireland.

BEGGAR 1997

oil 28 x 38 cms

purchased: RHA 1997

thirty seven

Barry Fitzpatrick

b. Waterford, 1969. Full-time painter who frequently works at night. Work

influenced by Francis Bacon. Has had one successful solo exhibition at

Dyehouse Gallery Waterford, and also participated in several group shows.

Represented in several public and private collections in Waterford.

thirty eight

STREET SCENE 2000

oil on paper 82 x 56 cms

purchased: RHA 2000

Paul Funge

b. Gorey Co. Wexford, 1944. Educated NCAD and Accademia de Belli

Arti Florence. Works in oils, acrylics and water. Strong spatial and

figurative sense has earned him a high reputation as a landscapist

and portraitist. Has exhibited in the Project Arts Centre, of which he

is a founder director, the Arts Club, the Hallward Gallery and major

group shows, as well as in Amsterdam, Santa Barbara California, and

various cities in Spain, which he regards as his spiritual home. Major

retrospective Drogheda 1995. Is a distinguished art educationalist

who has lectured in NCAD and universities in California and

Amsterdam. Founder and director of the Gorey Arts Centre/Festival, a

milestone in the development of the arts outside Dublin. His

paintings are ‘full of jazz, Hockney-ish modernisms and in general

the swinging (and sometimes boring) scene. They have a casual and

almost improvised look’ (Brian Fallon). Lit: ‘Nice one Mr Funge’ by

Aidan Dunne in In Dublin (April 1980); author of A perspective on art

(Seapol Books 1967).

thirty nine

NO REGRETS MR FUNGE NO. 8 1983




ZAMORA 1994


purchased: Drogheda Arts Centre 1994

DR DAVID FENTON 1995



Martin Gale

b. Worcester UK, 1949. Reared in Ireland. A new realist who paints landscapes and people

in landscapes, sometimes focusing on the most ordinary subject matter ‘in a kind of super

colour photography’ and in meticulous detail. In these works, always superbly executed,

there are ‘hints of psychological tension or mystery. Favours the close tones and clear

outlines of the Irish landscape in winter and has a special feeling for its mixture of harshness

and intimacy’ (Brian Fallon). Frequently employs to great effect the old realist device of

placing something close-up in the foreground. Member of RHA and Aosdána. Irish

representative at the Paris Biennale 1980. Work selected from this exhibition subsequently

toured Portugal and Finland. Arts Council touring exhibition Family and friends 1981 and

Sense of Ireland Festival London. Exhibits Taylor Galleries Dublin.

forty

ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER 1992



OUTBACK 1980




THE ARTICHOKE WINDOW 1975




Neil Gall

b. Scotland, 1967. Studied at Gray’s School of

Art Aberdeen, Slade School of Art London and

British School Rome. Employs architectural

photographs all through the painting process,

using the illusory space, but painting in a flat,

d i rect manner. His paintings are neither

a b s t ract nor figura t i ve, but ultimately an

emotive experience.

CONSTRUCTION 1998


on loan from Mr Richard Whitington

forty one

Terence Gayer

b. 1924. Studied at Limerick College of

Art and Design and NCAD, where he

afterwards lectured. Elected to WCSI

1 9 61. Selected exhibitions: RHA,

O i re a c h t a s, Independent Artis t s.

Fine-print exhibitions in India, Italy,

Norway, Switzerland and USA.

forty two

SOJOURN 1995



Mitsy Gerson

b. Utrecht Netherlands, 1943. Studied

at Academie de Schans Ams t e rd a m .

Versatile and technically accomplished

freelance artist / designer / fashion

i l l us t rator / animator. Lived for

extended periods in both Dublin and

County Laois, before returning to the

Netherlands in 1994. First solo

exhibition in Ams t e rdam at age of

sixteen. Subsequent exhibitions in

A ms t e rdam, Gronigen, Dublin,

Portlaoise and Kilkenny. Her painting,

whether abstract, portraiture, or still

life, is characterised by a striking variety

of styles, marked always with an intense

preoccupation with her subject matter,

expressed with comprehension, colour

and sensibility.

forty three

POWER CUT 1981



HOP 1986


purchased: Rothe House Kilkenny 1994

Alice Berger Hammerschlag

b. Vienna Austria, 1917, d. 1969. Lived for the last thirty-one years of her life in Belfast. Studied at

Vienna Academy of Arts and Kunstgewerbeschule. Member of the Women’s International Art Club

and the Free Painters and Sculptors London. Media used include acrylic, gouache, oil and tempera.

‘She continues to be preoccupied with the force of opposites, floating sphere and darting rod,

indication that her artistry is as vital as ever’ (Hilary Pyle, 1960). Work exhibited extensively in solo

shows from 1969 in London, Manchester, Belfast, Bristol and Dublin; and in major group

exhibitions in New York, UK, mainland Europe and also in the IELA. Work in public collections in

Dublin, Belfast and Bristol as well as in numerous private collections.

forty four

SILENT EMERGENCE 1966




James Hanley

b. Dublin, 1956. Educated UCD, NCAD and Glasgow School of Art and Design. His works explore familiar themes and

images. They are essentially humorous, trompe l’oeil devices, one-liners, in-jokes, out-takes, quirky and ridiculous, which

serve to heighten the provisional nature of meaning and illusion. He is also an established portraitist. He has exhibited

widely in Ireland and abroad, most recently in survey shows of Irish art which toured England and America, and at the

1999 exhibition of contemporary art at the Florence Biennale. Represented in numerous private and public collections,

including IMMA, Arts Council and European parliament. An associate member of RHA.

forty five

AFTER DUCHAMP 1999

conté and graphite on gessoed paper 38 x 30 cms

purchased: Hallward Gallery Dublin 1999

Alice Hanratty

b. Dublin. Studied at NCAD and Hornsey College of Art London. Taught NCAD, Dun Laoghaire College

of Art and Design and DIT. Founder member of Society of Designers in Ireland. Her work encompasses

both painting and printmaking and although in the European figurative tradition, she is influenced by

time spent in East Africa. Member of Aosdána. Several solo exhibitions and has exhibited in group

shows in Ireland, UK, USA, mainland Europe, Japan and India. Work in many private collections, and

in public collections including TCD, Arts Council, Irish Government Buildings, National Gallery Istanbul

and National Gallery Catania Sicily.

forty six

STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLES 1994



Charles Harper

b. Valentia Island Co. Kerry, 1943.

Studied at Limerick College of Art and

Design, the Graphic Studio Dublin and

NCAD. Head of Fine Art Fa c u l t y,

Limerick School of Art and Design.

Founded EVA Limerick, 1975, and a

founder member of Aosdána, 1981.

Associate member of RHA. An initial

influence was a year studying

animation in Germany. A painter in

watercolours and oils, he is best known

for his studies of heads and nudes in

series on picture planes uniformly

divided by a grid system. This was

dropped in his more recent Bellissima

series. Is a prolific artist and winner of

many national awards, whose work has

been shown in solo exhibitions in

Switzerland and Latvia, and in group

exhibitions including IELA and RHA,

and in Spain, USA, Canada and France.

Mid-term retrospective Kilkenny 1980.

Retrospective 1998.

forty seven

HELIOCENTRIC TIMESPOT 1974

gouache 50 x 63 cms



CASTIGATORY 1976




OSSESSIONE 1981

mixed media 52 x 65 cms



Patrick Harris

b. Dublin, 1953. Scholarship student at NCAD. Subsequently

studied in Madrid and at the National Institute of Fine Arts

Antwerp. Lecturer at the College of Marketing and Design

Dublin. Has exhibited in group and individual shows in

Dublin, London and Belgium. Work included in major Irish

public collections and in private collections in Ireland,

mainland Europe and USA.

forty eight

NUDE BACK STUDY 1989

charcoal drawing on paper 69 x 53 cms



Evelyn Healy

Lives mainly in Achill, Co Mayo.

Commenced painting in 1970

as student of NCAD. Primarily a

landscapist, she has recorded

the places she has visited in

France, Japan, the Philippines

and Australia. Favours a limited

palette, blending colours from

vermilion, ochre, cobalt,

ultramarine, viridian and white.

Paint is liberally applied directly

to canvas on location using

both the alla primo method and

a palette knife to achieve

particular light effects. Has

exhibited at Bank of Ireland,

RDS, and Achill Gallery.

forty nine

LOOKING WEST 1994



A SUMMER DAY: DOOEGA, ACHILL, CO MAYO 1994



Patrick Hickey

b. India 1927, d. 1998. Came to Ireland in 1948 where he trained as an architect at UCD. In

1954 won scholarship to study etching and lithography at Scuola del Libro in Urbino Italy.

Commenced exhibiting at IELA 1955. Had his first one-man show of painting 1961, and of

graphics 1965. Was a founder of the Graphics Studio in Dublin 1961. Was Honorary Member

of RHA. His teaching and work as an artist did much to stimulate the development of Irish

graphics. Represented Ireland in Paris, Swedish, Cracow and Sao Paulo Biennales and exhibited

regularly at the Ljubijana and Toyko Biennales. Worked with Dale Chihuly on his ‘Over Venice’

project for the Venice Biennale. Stations of the Cross etchings were purchased for Archives

Nationales Paris. His subjects were thematic and included the Divine Comedy, months of the

year, still lifes and Wicklow landscapes, but the characteristic style was unmistakably Eastern.

Work included in many Irish public collections and in private collections in UK, USA and Far

East. Exhibited Taylor Galleries Dublin.

fifty

THREE MORE POMEGRANATES 1985

gouache 57 x 76 cms



Declan Holloway

b. Athlone, 1959. Awarded NCAD Diploma in Painting 1981,

and Diploma in Printmaking from Crawford School of Art and

Design Cork 1985. Currently lectures in Galway-Mayo Institute

of Technology. His etchings reveal a strong involvement in the

d e c o nstruction and re c o n t e x t u a l isation pro c e s s. His

representation of the human figure, particularly the nude, is

arrived at through the use of the erosive nature of the etching

process itself.

fifty one

ETCHING 1995

etching 50 x 35 cms


Niamh Keenan

b. 1934. Lives in Dublin. Studied at St Patrick’s Training College and NCAD. WCSI 1965.

Well-known for her ‘old Dublin’ watercolours. Also paints in oil. Selected exhibitions

include the National Women’s Year Exhibition, National Craft Exhibition RDS, Breton

Festival France, Galerie De Haven Holland and Tatten Gallery Malahide.

fifty two

BEWLEY’S CAFÉ, MARY STREET 1994



THE BAILY COURT HOTEL, HOWTH 1994



Desmond Kinney

b. Portstewart Co. Derry, 1934. Grew up in Belfast where he

trained as a calligrapher at the College of Art. Subsequently

a graphic designer. Has executed large-scale mosaics and

murals for public places. As a watercolourist has painted

landscapes, still life and horses. Solo exhibitions in Dublin,

Belfast and Galway. Work represented in many public and

private collections.

HORSERACING 1990


purchased: Eakin Gallery Belfast 1992

fifty three

John Kirwan

b. Dublin. A realist painter of landscape in oils who is drawn to coastal regions, especially Achill and Howth, for

their big expanses of sky and highly mobile lighting and weather conditions. ‘While on one level there is a veil

of romanticism running through his work, his paintings are motivated by an evident conviction that it is only

naturalistic accuracy that will in the end deliver’ (Aidan Dunne). His talents extend beyond painting into such

areas as film, theatre, public works and fashion. Five successful solo exhibitions to date.

fifty four

LOW-LIGHT MIST, ACHILL 1995


on loan from Ms Tina O’Hara

Anne Rigney Lally

b. Tullamore, 1957. Studied art and design at Athlone Institute of Technology. Now

lives in Co. Roscommon. Has been artist-in-school in Castlerea Community School,

and artist-in-community in Strokestown. Works mainly in mixed-media montages

through which she responds to life’s continual change in the passage from birth to

death. Has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and is represented in the

collections of Irish Distillers Group and Roscommon County Council, as well as in

many private collections.

fifty five

WOMAN 1996



BEING 1996



ALONE 1996



Nancy Larchet

Lives in Dublin. Studied at UCD. Interior designer, specialising in institutional kitchens and

laundries. She also mounts arts and crafts exhibitions. Shapes and shadow in landscape,

buildings, flowers and foliage are a great source of inspiration. Selected exhibitions include the

RHA, Oireachtas, European Institute of Watercolours Dublin, Italian Watercolour Society, Trees of

Life touring and Salon International Pastel Ville de Compeigne France.

fifty six

A PREPONDERANCE OF POPPIES 1994



Ramie Leahy

b. Kilkenny, 1950. Studied at the Limerick College of Art and

Design, TCD and International University of Art Florence.

Resides Kilkenny. An active arts administrator and organiser

who was a founding member and public relations officer of

Kilkenny Arts Week, forward planner and exhibition officer of

W e x f o rd Arts Centre and Wexford Fe s t i val Opera, and

coordinator of many group exhibitions. His work includes

landscapes, natural-history studies and figurative paintings.

‘The form and colours of Leahy’s paintings are rather like a

galaxy, alive with light and vivid flashings of disappearing

glows, not residues of disintegrating worlds, but rather a

cosmic vibration of innovating forms’ (Luisa Beeherucci). Has

exhibited in solo exhibitions in Florence, Switzerland, USA,

London, Dublin and Kilkenny, and in many group shows in

Ireland and abroad, including IELA and Kilkenny Colourists

1995.

fifty seven

PLESIOSAURUS 1995


purchased: Khan’s Gallery & Bookshop Kilkenny 1996

Anna Marie Leavy

b. Pettigo Co. Donegal, 1939. Studied at NCAD. Lived and taught art in Dumfries Scotland and

Downpatrick Co. Down for many years before settling down in Mullingar in 1971. Actively promoted

watercolour as a medium by teaching in the VEC Adult Education programme. Founding member of Art

Enterprises, the group that initiated weekend painting courses in the midlands. In recent years has painted

‘gems of nature that are hidden in quiet corners of the wood or field, the charming shapes and colours

of wild flowers, cracks in a rock or tree stump’. Selected exhibitions include the RHA, United Artists,

Municipal Art Museum Tokyo, Kenny Gallery Galway and Fukui Cultural Centre and Saiwai Gallery

Kawasaki Japan. Her paintings are in public and private collections all over the world.

fifty eight

SEASONS IN IRELAND 1994



Louis Le Brocquy

b. Dublin, 1916. Self-taught and now, undoubtedly, one of

Ireland’s most celebrated artists. Founder member of IELA

1943. RHA 1949. Member of Aosdána. Lived in London from

1946 and in France from 1958. Represented Ireland at Venice

Biennale and won Guggenheim Awards in 1958 and 1960.

DLitt TCD 1962. After his ‘grey’ period in the 1940s and his

‘white’ period in the 1950s, work since 1964 has been

principally concerned with the Celtic concept of the human

head as a magic box containing the spirit. Exhibited a

hundred studies Towards an image of W.B. Yeats at the Musee

d’Art Moderne Paris 1976 and at Edinburgh Festival 1977. A

similar exhibition of heads of James Joyce toured Europe

and America 1978-9. His images of Federico Garcia Lorca

were exhibited in Barcelona, Madrid and Granada, while his

Beckett, Strindberg and Francis Bacon images were exhibited

in Paris in 1979 and in Dublin at Rosc 80. Irish head image

and Louis le Brocquy exhibition New York State Museum

Albany 1981. Also known for his tapestries and book

illustrations, such as Thomas Kinsella’s translation of the

Táin. Work in collections of many of the world’s leading

m us e u ms. Lit: Dorothy Walker, Louis le Brocquy

(Dublin 1981).

fifty nine

STUDY TOWARDS AN IMAGE OF W.B. YEATS: NO. 26 1976

conte on paper 22 x 18 cms

purchased: Dawson Gallery Dublin 1977


UNTITLED THE TÁIN 1989



JAMES JOYCE 1981




THOMAS KINSELLA 1981




SEAMUS HEANEY 1981




JOHN MONTAGUE 1981




sixty

JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE 1981




WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS 1981




FRANCIS STUART 1981

lithograph (64 of 100) 32 x 27cms



SAMUEL BECKETT 1981




sixty one

Hector McDonnell

b. Belfast, 1947. After education at Eton and Oxford, studied art in Munich

and Vienna. Lives London, New York and Glenarm Co. Antrim. Has travelled

and painted in both Asia and Africa. A realist whose superb use of colour

depicts the everyday experiences of western urban civilisation and life in the

Third World with sympathy and conviction. Has exhibited in London, New

York, Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Madrid, Stuttgart and Hong Kong.

Represented in many collections world-wide.

sixty two

OLD WOMAN KATALE CAMP ZAIRE 1996

etching 30 x 20 cms


MOTHER/BABY KATALE CAMP 1996

etching 30 x 20 cms


Eileen McDonagh

b. Geevagh Co Sligo. Studied at the Institute of Technology

Sligo and Limerick College of Art and Design. Since 1986

has worked full-time as a sculptor, mainly in limestone and

granite. Worked in symposia in Japan, mainland Europe,

India and Scotland, and in various locations in Ireland. Now

lives in Co. Kildare. Athlone Institute of Technology

sculpture was commissioned in open competition. Has also

successfully competed for commissions from OPW, Dublin

Corporation, and Cork and Laois County Councils. Her

1992 solo show Truss in the Project Art Centre was

described by art critic Aidan Dunne as ‘an outstanding

exhibition’.

sixty three

ALLEGORY STONE 1991

limestone 178 x 116 x 86 cms


Maurice MacGonigal

b. Dublin 1900, d. 1979. After apprenticeship at stained-glass studio of his uncle, Joshua

Clark - interrupted by imprisonment for IRA involvement - he studied at Metropolitan School

of Art Dublin. First solo show 1929. Exhibited RHA for fifty-four years, becoming a member

1933 and president 1962. Appointed keeper of RHA School and became professor of painting

1947. An influential teacher and also one of Dublin’s most successful artists. Produced many

oil paintings and watercolours, chiefly landscapes, ‘painting with rather muted colours soft,

blue-grey scenes at country fair s, and occasionally quite vivid interiors’ (Bruce Arnold). Also

a designer of posters and stage sets, and a book illustrator.

sixty four

CURRACHS CONNEMARA 1977




Margo McNulty

b. Achill Island Co Mayo. Studied fine art printing and

fine art in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.

Postgraduate scholarship to Belgium, and afterwards

lived and worked in London. Returned to Ireland

1993 and currently lives near Athlone. Works

instinctively with images and materials, making odd

connections and paring colour to express a refined

imagery. Prizewinner at Iontas exhibition Sligo and

National Open Print Exhibition Galway. Group shows

in Ireland, UK and mainland Europe. Represented in

p r i vate collections in Ireland, UK, Netherlands,

Germany and Australia.

sixty five

SLIP 1998

etching (1 of 10) 91 x 60 cms


REDISCOVERING CHILDHOOD 1995

carborundum print 32 x 59 cms


Tony Magner

b. Ballylanders Co. Limerick. Educated Galway-Mayo

Institute of Technology and University of Ulster. Scholarship

to China in printmaking. Occasional lecturer in illustration

at Athlone Institute of Technology. Textile designer and also

works in mixed media. Member Artspace Studios Galway.

Represented in group shows in Ireland, UK and mainland

Europe. Work in several ‘advanced’ private collections.

sixty six

CIPHER 1997



Amanda Maguire

b. Lurgan Co Armagh, 1959. Daughter of

Ulster painter Cecil Maguire. Precocious,

self-taught teenager who exhibited

annually in RHA 1972-5. Also exhibited in

RUA and in joint exhibitions with her

father in Ke n n y ’s Gallery Galway.

Emigrated to USA at the age of seventeen

and now lives in New York.

sixty seven

THE BRONX

collage 48 x 39 cms



Joan Mallon

b. Manchester, 1955. Attended Liverpool Polytechnic where she took

a BA in fashion and printed textiles. Works in gouache. Has exhibited

RHA, RUA and other shows in Ireland. Represented in several Irish

public and private collections.

sixty eight

THE WOOING, THE WAITING AND THE DOING 1994

gouache on paper 40 x 22 / 40 x 40 / 40 x 22 cms


Colin Middleton

b. Belfast, 1910, d. 1983. A self taught painter who

‘painted in almost as many styles as there are “isms”

in modern art, but always with his own voice’

(Michael Longley). Was represented in numerous Irish

and international group exhibitions and in one-man

shows, including retrospectives in Dublin, Belfast,

London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. His 1976

retrospective consisted of almost 300 works. MBE

1969. RHA 1970. Work is part of every major public

and private collection of Irish modern art. Lit: John

Hewitt and Mike Catto, Art in Ulster (Belfast 1991).

BIRDS ON WIRE 1974




sixty nine

Hazel Moore

b. Naul Co. Meath, 1975. Studied at Athlone Institute of

Technology, graduating with a National Diploma in Design

(Communications) 1998. Currently working for a Carlow-

based graphic design multimedia company specialising in

graphics, animation, audio and programming for children’s

educational products.

TABOO 1998



presented by the Students’ Union, Athlone Institute of Technology

seventy

Brendan Neiland

b. Lichfield UK, 1941. After a period as a seminarian in Ireland, attended

Birmingham College of Art and Royal College of Art London. A leading

British painter and printmaker. At once intimate and grand, celebratory

and melancholy, his work often features the soaring glass and steel

structures characteristic of contemporary corporate architecture. ‘His

paintings and contributions are important in making us look again, and

in a different way, at this aspect of our physical surroundings and the

technology with which we construct the world; above all, on the

questions that this raises for us as human beings’ (Philip Dowson, PRA).

Many solo exhibitions and commissions. RA, FRSA, keeper RA, professor

of painting University of Brighton, visiting professor of fine art

Loughborough University. Lit: Brendan Neiland, On reflection (Dubai,

London, 1997)

CUMULUS 1991

silkscreen (1 of 60) 152 x 122 cm s

purchased: RHA 2000

seventy one

Noelle Noonan

b. Cork, 1964. Attended Crawford School of Art and

Design Cork, before taking a master’s degree at Brighton

University. Subsequently coordinator of the Cork Writers’

Project. Member of the Blackwater Artists Group and the

Cork Printmakers Workshop. Since 1986 has participated

in group exhibitions, including several in London. Images

in the artist’s work are drawn from everyday events, people

and literature, blending reality with fiction.

seventy two

UNTITLED 1992



PULSE 1992



THE DIVINER 1992

lithograph 51 x 46 cms


Simon O’Donnell

b. Monasterevin Co Kildare, 1945. Now lives in

Dublin. Self-taught painter and sculptor. General

style is surrealist, flavoured by black humour, and

much influenced by ‘theatre of the absurd’ and

Samuel Beckett. Regular exhibitioner at RHA,

Oireachtas and other group shows. Solos at

Lincoln Gallery 1982, 1984 and 1985. Work

represented in many significant Irish private

collections.

seventy three

MILTONFRIEDMANIA 1980




David Oliver

b. Australia, 1967. Educated Sydney Art School and Sydney

University. Has travelled widely in Europe and lived in

Ireland. Exhibitions in Mallorca and Dublin on the theme

of the French newspaper Libération and its quiescent

formal and aesthetic properties.

seventy four

LIBÉRATION 1998


on loan from Mr Richard Whitington

Tony O’Malley

b. Callan Co. Kilkenny, 1913. Only commenced

painting in 1948 while recuperating from illness.

Resided in St Ives Cornwall, centre of a thriving

artistic community, from 1959 until returning to

live at Callan in 1980. A leading abstractionist

who ‘is a brooding and inward-looking artist, in

whom the Irish landscape and the Irish past, its

myths and its whole psychic “aura”, seem to come

animistically to life. Certain critics, including

myself, regard him as the finest Irish painter of his

generation’ (Brian Fallon). His vibrant work is

widely re p resented in leading national and

international collections. Has won the Guardian

Art Critics’ Award and the 1989 Irish-American

Cultural Institute Award, and is a Saoi of Aosdána.

Honorary member of RHA. Participated in group

exhibitions in London, Brussels, Canada and USA.

seventy five

OBAIR GAN AINM 1998

carborundum print (32 of 35) 100 x 75 cms


Raymond Piper

b. London, 1923. Has lived in Northern Ireland from

the age of seven. After various studies, which included

evening classes at Belfast College of Art and a

travelling scholarship to France, became a full-time

artist in 1948. Has worked with distinction in various

media to create an extensive and impressive oeuvre

which includes portraiture, book illustration, and

studies of ballet, Iri sh folklore, musicians and orchids

(on which he is an international authority). Has

taught art in Belfast College of Art/University of

Ulster, and is a lecturer with the Arts Council of

Northern Ireland. Has made seve ral radio and

t e l e v ision documentaries. Recipient of numero us

awards. Solo exhibitions in Belfast, London, Dublin,

Wexford and Belgium. Represented in many public

and private collections throughout the world.

seventy six

SEATED NUDE 2000

conté crayon 104 x 87 cms

purchased: RHA 2000

Jane Proctor

b. 1957. Graduated NCAD 1983. Has exhibited in

Kilkenny, Limerick and Dublin.

seventy seven

NEST 1994

gouache on paper 46 x 60 cms

purchased: Holles Street Hospital Exhibition 1994

Patrick Pye

b. Winchester UK, 1929. Brought up in Dublin where he studied at NCAD. Oisin Kelly

was an early tutor. Romanesque art seen at National Museum in Barcelona first

turned his attention to Christian iconography. Depicts religious themes in tempera,

oil, stained glass and etching, with evangelistic conviction and in a contemporary

style which belongs to no particular school. Many commissions in churches make his

work easily accessible throughout Ireland. Created more than twenty triptychs on

sacred themes. RHA 1992. Member of Aosdána. A large tempera painting Woman and

serpent commissioned by Bank of Ireland. Frequent exhibitor at David Hendriks

Gallery Dublin.

seventy eight

THE ENTOMBMENT II 1995



DEL VERBO DIVINO 1994

tempera on panel 77 x 33 cms

purchased: Holles Street Hospital Exhibition 1994

Padraic Reaney

b. Carraroe Co. Galway, 1952. His images, especially his pierced

figure in a landscape series, are reminiscent of Graham

Sutherland and Sidney Nolan. It is with the latter ‘that the

greatest affinity exists - the gaunt rib cage, the carcass

deposited by flood in the branches of a tree, the dried-out

gaping hide...Here, one is confronted with a personal vision,

using images of pain, crucifixion, decay, loneliness and the

totality of the individual’ (Hugh McCormick). Exhibited Stone

Art Galway 1981, Artworld Gallery Athlone 1995.

seventy nine

WAITING FOR INDIAN CORN II 1995



Chris Reid

b. 1918. WCSI 1965. Lives in Dublin.

Studied dress design at Grafton Academy

and pursued a career in hat-making. Took

up painting at the age of forty, attended

evening classes at NCAD, and studied

printmaking at the Graphic Studio Dublin.

Her exhibitions include RHA, Oireachtas,

IELA and Festival Celtique France.

eighty

YESTERDAY’S TODAYS 1994

gouache 46 x 35 cms


Noreen Rice

b. and educated in Belfast. Held first one-woman exhibition in British

Council Hong Kong 1956, later moving to London to work for BBC.

Handles pastels on a scale that owes something to Chagall, but in

theme is strikingly original and Celtic. Regular contributor to IELA and

has been represented in group exhibitions in Canada and USA. Her

work has also been shown at Waterford Festival, Ulster Society of

Woman Artists, New Vision Gallery London, the Queen’s University

Belfast, Caldwell Gallery Belfast and David Hendriks Gallery Dublin.

eighty one

WHICH WAY, WHICH DAY 1972




Thomas Ryan

b. Limerick, 1929. Member and former

president RHA. Member of boards of

governors of National Gallery of Ireland

and NCAD. Well-established versatile and

p rolific artist. Painter of portra i t s,

landscapes, still lifes, interiors, historical

and figure subjects, flower-pieces. Works

in oil, watercolour, pencil and chalks;

models in clay. Widely represented in

Irish collections.

eighty two

SNOWY ROAD AT HOME 1979




Vincent Sheridan

b. Co. Kildare, 1945. Educated DIT and NCAD. Main themes include animals and birds whose social

behaviour, dynamic interaction and relationship to the physical and human environment are used to

mirror human activities and comment whimsically on such aspects of modern society as groupies,

stereotypes, passivity and regulation. Has an abiding interest in Arctic history, wildlife and

exploration. Solo exhibitions in Canada, Ireland and Germany.

eighty three

CORVIDS I 1997


purchased: RHA 1997

Constance Short

b. Clones Co. Monaghan, 1944. A prize-winning graphic

artist who also paints murals and sculpts. Her ‘prints

operate a certain narrative quality which subverts itself

in the nick of time by resisting any single storyline. Are

these works about gender, about personal identity,

about fragmentation? Short offers us access to our own

insights and responsibilities’ (Medb Ruane). She has

exhibited widely in Ireland, mainland Europe and New

York. Represented in public collections such as GAA

Museum and Arts Council. An arts activist, she helped

set up the original Projects Arts Centre, became secretary

of Independent Artists and was involved in many cross-

border cultural exchanges. She has worked with several

poets, including Paul Durcan who contributed the poem

which forms the centrepiece of Noughts and crosses.

eighty four

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES 1994

collage (1 of 4) 92 x 89 cms

purchased: Hallward Gallery Dublin 1996

Louis Sinclair

Exhibited RHA 1978-9. Resided in Dun Laoghaire.

Group shows Lincoln Gallery.

eighty five

FIVE SEAGULLS 1979




Donal Teskey

b. Rathkeale Co Limerick, 1956. Participated GPA Award Exhibition

1981. First attracted attention with a long series of graphite works

close to photo-realist, but shot through with an arresting surreal

quality. ‘A natural, fluent inventive draughtsman (who) has

progressed to set himself tougher challenges. He has a preference

for night settings, deep shadows and harsh artificial light’ (Aidan

Dunne). Exhibits RHA and Rubicon Gallery Dublin.

eighty six

POLLING DAY 1995


purchased: RHA 1995

Manus Walsh

b. Dublin, 1940. Before taking up painting as a full-time artist, spent some time

in the stained-glass medium and has five windows in Galway Cathedral,

including the large interior study of the Last Supper. First exhibition in the

Dublin Painters’ Gallery 1967 after a long sojourn, the first of many, in Spain.

A director and active member of the Project Arts Centre serving on the visual

arts committee. As well as a one-man show in 1973, has contributed to many

of the Centre’s group shows, and to RHA and Oireachtas exhibitions. Exhibited

at Biennales in Canada as well as exhibits in Chile and throughout Ireland.

Work in collections in Ireland, USA and Europe. Recent work has focused on

the landscape of the Burren, and the cityscape of Valparaiso.

eighty seven

MUSICIANS 1979

mixed media 53 x 51cms



Judith Caulfield Walshe

b. Hollymount Co Mayo. Watercolourist and

member WCSI. Solo exhibitions in Ireland and UK,

as well as exhibiting in RHA.

eighty eight

UNTITLED 1994



Sheila Walton-Hough

b. Ke n ya, 1952. Attended Cra w f o rd

Municipal School of Art Cork. L’Ecole des

Beaux Arts Pa r is and Copenhagen

Academy of Fine Art. Now lives in

Banagher Co. Offaly. Lectures part-time

in Athlone Institute of Te c h n o l o g y.

Mainly a portraitist and landscapist. One-

woman shows in Cork and Dublin 1975/6.

eighty nine

GERRY GRAY 1990



Joe Wilson

b. Bolton UK, 1947. BA in Fine Art at Manchester

Polytechnic 1969. Lecturer NCAD and visiting

lecturer at the Slade School of Art, Metropolitan

U n i ve rsity of Manchester and Nova Scotia

College of Art. Has published in Control and

exhibited at Moss Side Manchester photography

exhibition. Several group exhibitions in Ireland

since 1981, including the Exhibition of Visual

Arts and the European Printmaking show at

Guinness Hop Store, as well as in Holland,

Belgium and Moscow. Solo exhibition Hallward

Gallery Dublin 1996.

ninety

THE PLATE FIGHTS BACK 1989


purchased: Riverrun Gallery Dublin 1989


Anne Yeats

b. Dublin 1919, daughter W.B. Yeats. Trained at RHA School

Dublin 1933-6. Started her career as a stage designer, in

particular for Abbey Theatre Dublin, but took up painting in

1941. Innovative landscapist. First one-woman show in Dublin

1945. Member of Aosdána. Exhibitions in Canada, France and

Taylor Galleries Dublin. Represented in private and public

collections worldwide.

ninety one

LANDSCAPE SEEN FROM PLANE II 1981




ninety two