Beschreibung:

OCTOBER AND BLACK, 1983 Tony O'Malley HRHA (1913-2003)
Signature: with artist's initials in the weave lower left; titled on reverse Medium: Gobelin style woven tapestry Dimensions: 57 x 35in. (144.78 x 88.90cm) Provenance: Collection of George and Maura McClelland Exhibited: Literature: Around 1983 George McClelland approached Wexford weaver Terry Dunne to create five unique tapestries based on original artworks by Tony O'Malley from his collection. According to Dunne, these tapestri... ies were originally intended for inclusion in the artist's Arts Council Retrospective in 1984 however this idea was never realised. Instead the artworks remained in the McClelland private collection unseen by the public until now. We are grateful to Terry Dunne for his kind assistance in cataloguing these works. Dunne continues his successful practice in County Wexford and has since produced commissioned pieces for O'Malley's wife Jane, Michael Smurfit & The K Club, Co. Kildare, Monaghan Cathedral, Dublin City University, Irish Life Beresford Place, Dublin and Green Isle Foods among others. For further reading see: www.terrytheweaver.ie 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 f