Beschreibung:

MORNING LIGHT, PARADISE ISLAND, BAHAMAS, 1980 Tony O'Malley HRHA (1913-2003)
Signature: signed with initials lower left and dated lower right; signed in English and Irish, titled, dated [1/1980] and numbered [246 & R267] on reverse Medium: acrylic on canvas Dimensions: 48 x 36in. (121.92 x 91.44cm) Provenance: Collection of George and Maura McClelland Exhibited: Literature: Tony O'Malley's work came to the attention of art lovers in Ireland comparatively late in the artist's life. He spent the 1960s painting in Cornwall, absorbing the prevailing aesthetic of abstraction ... to his own ends. He did exhibit, but much work remained unsold. His creative harvest from the 1970s was magnificent. Marriage to Jane Harris in 1973 led to winters in the Bahamas, where he began painting outdoors on canvas. Sales however remained sporadic. O'Malley's life changed when Northern artists, F. E. Mc William and William Scott introduced him to Belfast dealer, gallerist and collector, George McClelland in 1979 or 80. In the few but effective years during which he promoted O'Malley's work, George himself acquired a number of fine works. Some were loaned to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and later donated. (1) Others stayed in the family until now . In Cottage, St Martins, 1972 (lot 66) a figurative work, O'Malley explores the possibilities of French modernism. In Jerpoint, 1977 (lot 68) O'Malley's palette is strong and dark and his shapes highly stylised. This dynamic works well as a response to the Abbey's carved figures eroded over time. The energy of the contours suggests the vital imaginative presence to the artist of these figures from the past. The McClelland collection included some experimental works by O'Malley. The tactile quality of the wool in the tapestries communicates a different but interesting atmosphere to the paintings. October and Black, 1983 (lot 60), woven by Terry Dunne in Wexford, is in fact a very blue work, the intensity of the royal blue recalling stained glass. It attests to O'Malley's abiding interest in the medieval. The superb Night Painter, 1981 (lot 57) is in the tradition of the tall, rectangular works on board in which the artist explores the interior/exterior. Strong, irregular shapes provide the framework for the textured treatment of the surface. Verdigris greens billow around the predominant slate grey rectangle which signifies night. Incised marks reflect the resistance of the board and allow the paint to achieve a variety of effects. Abstracted in form, a small white curtain is tentatively anchored by a red spot. Perhaps there is a suggestion of a tiny self-portrait in one of the richly patterned, rhythmic panels below. Travelling to the Bahamas by plane made canvas the easiest support to manage. A sense of lightness and loveliness characterises Morning Light II, Paradise Island, Bahamas, 1982 (the present lot, 53) a painting at once abstract and based in the real world. In this serene and luminous work, the artist risks using the softest of colours; baby blue and pinks and lemony yellows. He characteristically divides the painting with a central linear spine, creating an open book or butterfly on the wing format. Space on the left is more recessive and still than on the right, where brushstrokes on the blue suggest a flurry of bird life. A feeling of reverence and joy is expressed. Intimate and reflective, many of these works by O'Malley from the Mc Clelland collection are of museum quality. Vera Ryan August 2016 1 The Hunter Gatherer - The Collection of George and Maura McClelland, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2004 [ABSTRACTS] more