Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)
Head of a Traveller
Oil on canvas, 61 x 45cm (24 x 17¾'')
Signed and dated (19)'84 verso

Provenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.

Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)
Head of a Traveller
Oil on canvas, 61 x 45cm (24 x 17¾'')
Signed and dated (19)'84 verso

Provenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.

Basil Blackshaw HRUA (1932-2016) was born in Glengormley but his family moved soon after to Boardmills, Co. Down. He studied at Art College in Belfast in the late 1940s. In 1951 Blackshaw was awarded a scholarship by the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, to study in Paris. It was at this time that he encountered the work of a number of artists that were to have an enduring impact on his career. A major retrospective of Blackshaws work was held in 1974 at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast, and another in 1995 was organised by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The latter was exhibited at the Ormeau Baths, Royal Hibernian Academy, Crawford Municipal Gallery, and a selection of the works travelled to the United States for a further tour. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Glen Dimplex Award for a Sustained Contribution to the Visual Arts. He exhibited at the Ulster Museum, Belfast in 2002 and a monograph was published on the artist by Eamonn Mallie in 2003. In 2012 the Royal Hibernian Academy in conjunction with the F.E. McWilliam Gallery organised a substantial retrospective of the artists work entitled Blackshaw at 80. He was a member of Aosdana, RUA and Associate Member of the RHA.

Head of a Traveller painted in 1984 is quite different from much of Blackshaws figurative work and portraiture. This work demonstrates a relatively broad palette compared to that generally found in the artists practice. It is almost as if Blackshaw has sculpted the head from earth and clay, such are the modelling marks that could have as easily been made with the hands; fingers and thumbs, as with the brush. The subjects visage is characterful in its rendering; he has one blue eye, one brown, a prominent nose, dark shadowed chin and long unkempt jet-black hair. The painting is powerful and memorable and it portrays a depth of character in the man portrayed that clearly left an intense impression on the artist. In 1985, Mike Catto wrote; The superb Heads of Travellers were far from lovely no stage Irish rustics these; instead the artist gave us stripped down direct faces. There was an effect almost of a blurred out-of-focus photograph in these faces, a sensation which has echoed in many of his figures over the years. (Aer Lingus Cara Magazine, 1985). While Catto is certainly accurate in his description of this group of works, this work Head of a Traveller stands apart from the others. It gives the impression, for a number of reasons, that it was the first portrait the artist produced on this theme; It is more detailed, expressionist, and demonstrates a broader palette; although the mans face is turned to the side, his eyes look directly at the viewer in a confrontational stare; in terms of connection of expression, it is akin to Roderic OConors Breton Peasant Woman Knitting 1893, in the intensity of execution and striped treatment of the corduroy jacket the traveller wears - this handling contrasts with that of the other works in the group that feel closer to Barrie Cooke in palette and finishing. Indeed it stands apart to such a degree that it seems closer to other works by Blackshaw than these portraits on the same subject. Dr Fionna Barber felt that; The expressionist brushstroke never totally describes the faces of his sitters; rather it suggests a pictorial equivalent to their presence. (F.E. McWilliam Gallery, 2012, p28). When writing about an earlier work entitled The Field by Blackshaw, Brian Fallon commented on the uninhibited brushwork and almost Expressionist vehemence of the painting. (Obituary, The Irish Times, May 6, 2016). These attributes can also be seen in Head of a Traveller painted some thirty years later. One of the defining aspects of Blackshaws work is the inherent challenge of the struggle of articulation. He was an artist who embraced this struggle as necessary and fundamental to the process; ...This is a man who has learnt that he was once too close to his subject matter; a man who would love to be an abstract painter but is not; a man who can make scale, surface and the emotional temperature of colour coalesce; a man who has learnt to avoid the slick or clever brushstroke, or the purely descriptive brushstroke in favour of a painters marks. (Brian McAvera, Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p59). This portrait of an unnamed traveller is the epitome of the coalescence of scale surface and the emotional temperature of colour and it has certainly been informed by the artists vision and his unique painters marks.

Marianne OKane Boal, April 2017

 

 

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