Page 11 - Patrick Scott Scrapbooks

IRISH EXHIBITION OF LIVING ART P A TRONS
PLEASE
at the opening of this Exhibition on Wednesday 14th August at 3 o'clock National College ofArt, Kildare Street, Dublin
PRBSRNT THIS INVIT A TION
A. J. McCONNELL
M.A. Sc.D. Provost Trinity Collegt, Dublin MICHAEL TIERNEY
M.A. Pwident Univmity College, Dublin
THOMAS McGREEVY
Director, National Gallery of Ireland
DR. GEORGE FURLONG
The Committee requests the presence
o f
''
LIVING ART EXHIBITION MacGuinness adds to her repu-
tation with paintings which tend at times to be almost too power- fully coloured. Among the most recent members of th!S group
OPENS TO-DAY
By Our Art Critic
'THEIrish Exhibition of Living Art, which opens who tend to reject the tradi-
to-day in the National College of Art, Kildare Street, tional concentration on literary is probably the best exhibition we have seen of con- subjects for direct transcrip-
temporary art.
tions of the visual, one admires
the wor'k of Patrick Hickey, It ls mature in the inter- Anne Madden, Dlarmuid O'Lia- national sense, containing Celtic and Oriental patterns. hain, Noreen Rice, 'Richard pictures by three of the few One of his paintings "Any Old Kingston, Noel Sheridan and
younger painters Who have Irish Town", is like a large map Jack Donovan. been included in the great of Irish streets lined with h<YUses
Brussels world exhibl'1on of we know of old and lnterSJpersed The section dealing with 50 years of mOdem painting with the m0111uments ap.d crosses stained glass Includes several -Sidney Nolan, Riopelle and which might be encountered in newcomers to t1lis technique.
Galway, Sligo and Westport. One cannot escape the feeling Anne Yeats has never before that they are seeing with the of view that h marks a point painted with so poetic a colour eyes of painters ratheri than of development in art ·In sense or such delicate surfaces with a comprehension of the Ireland. For we can now see as in her "From tJhe Window" translucency of colour and that the best of our painters or "Pool and Grasses", both of mosaic of parts which make take their place beside the best them abstractions, the titles of their special demands. Desmond , living artists of their genera- which enable us to see the Carrick, Phyllls Burke and tion. elements of the SI/object matter. Anthony Breslin each possess Gerard Dillon. Patrick Colllns, Patrick Collins' paintings are encouraging qualities of origin- Anne Yeats, Patrick Scott, smaller than usual, but two of ality, but the experienced artist - Nano Reid and Louis Le Broc- them, "Pierrott" and "Nativity", Patrick Pollen is· so · much quy can be seen to have a have a tenderness of touch and superior that It is hard to judge
commending power to invent a softness of colour whic.h the others fairly. pictorially, which places them make him seem the natural heir
Louis Le Brocquy.
I t is exciting from the point
In this category-a position, It to Jack B. Yeats' romanticism. may be said, towards which though his communications are
they have been steadily moving far more secret. Nano Reid's
for some years, while certain of style is little changed, but she
their contemporaries follow is painting as well as ever in a
them at very close range. series of works based on the two artists are very alike and
movements of tinkers in the produce a deeply emotional environs of Drogheda. But It is kind of expression In their heads
a distinct disappointment that which is medieval in feeling. It has been the practise of this the only painting sent by Louis whilst modern in style.
Foreign schools
organisation, through the assist- Le Brocquy dates back to 1954,
Patrick McElroy's "Altar Cross " Is a powerful descrip- ti-:>n of the old wrought iron figure interpreted In contem- porary form. Like the figured brasses this avoids sentiment but retains majesty. · Olsin Kelly shows a beaten copper " Sketch for The Madonna and Child " which is charmingly ex- pressive but tending towards
sentimentality.
Right in the middle of the
gallery Hilary Heron shows a very taJI wrought iron figure, "Crazy Jane III.'' The virtue of this work is In its witty com-
ance of the Arts Council, to include each year the works of certain foreign schools. This year we see paintings from Commonwealth countries-India, Canada, Australia, South Africa and C e y 1o n - not, Indeed, countries which In the past have been distinguished for their tradition in the graphic arts.
eV'en If It Is a distinguished one. Lively works
As usual in such large group exhibitions, there are many works which stand out for the force of their expression-such as Leslie Curtis's " Bonjour Tristesse," Thomas Carr's
However, with the develop- "Meanies Car," Caroline Scally's ment of communications, artists "Kerry Kitchen," George Camp- from remote places have gained be!l's " Still Life with Red in authority by living and work- Peppers," and the several arrest- ing in the great art capitals and ing studies f r o m Hichard have been able to climb on to O'Neill.
Individual, pictorial languages four lively works. Norah material. Yet it adds up to
the band waggon of inter-
national art, following the tiv.: cubist forms he has made mentary, Its Imposing lsize and almost universal styles in which his own, Father Hanlon exhibits the inappropriatness of the
!have become Ironed out Into a sort of visual Esperanto.
Still we can see the rebel vitality of Ned Kelly's world in the work of Sidney Nolan and Albert Tucker, of Australia, and a sense of mystery and awe In the nude of F. N. Souza. of India. The most lyrical and
luminous painting is by Daryl Hill, of Australia; the most compelling by Denis Brown, of South Africa, and the most exquisite by.Austen Cooper.
Exciting range
None of the,se importations to have the force of Pat- rick Scott's large " Girl Carrying Grasses," a painting which sets up an extraordinary suggestion
n of depth and atmosphere with - the artist's usual perfection of - architectural design. Mr. Scott
continues to explore space in relation to recognisable figures, but Gerald Dillon has com- m e n c e d t o p a i n t
s abstract works In a most excit- ing range of te"tures which incldes with the paint a mixture
• of sand. crushed stone i\nd slate. ·
Over glass-like colours of deep red and rich blue, he designs in
something which ls the equiva- 1ent of a weird figure out of Its setting. In that sense even wel- ded steel has the quality of
The following stanza is from a set of verses sent to me by Miss Mona McEnrov. of Wicklow, on Belfast"s rejection of Pat Scot.Cs picture: "Girl Carrying Grasses."
The timeless legend once more proves true;
The Living Art Race is run.
" Not ALL the people ALL ttnie ! "
It simply can't be done.
Though like the king invisible clothes
Aesthetes may seem
A depth of soul in hole
T/ze Philistine holds the fee, Forty Years Back
calligraphic
figures
recalling
In the gay colours and decora-
Bronzes dominate
·rhe sculptures are dominated by the bronzes of Gerda Fromel and Werner Schurman. These
EXHIBITION OF
LIVING ART