George Campbell RHA (1917-1974) My Neighbour's Window, Spain Oil on board, 76 x 51cm, (30 x 20'') Signed 'I was in Spain', said George Campbell in an interview given to The Irish Times in 1964,...

George Campbell RHA (1917-1974) My Neighbour's Window, Spain Oil on board, 76 x 51cm, (30 x 20'') Signed 'I was in Spain', said George Campbell in an interview given to The Irish Times in 1964, 'at the heart of the very best flamenco and it started to run parallel with my painting.' The brio which is at the heart of this painting is witness to his Hispanic enthralment. Arland Ushher, in his book, Spanish Mercy, devotes a chapter to Flamenco which is based on a conversation with Campbell. He speaks of Campbell's obsession with Spain in general and with flamenco in particular. 'Flamenco', George said 'has to come - to burst out of unseen bounds - to become levitated, so to speak. To the uninitiated it may remain nothing more than noisy or wild but believe me there is only room for uncontrol when the dancer or singer has learnt enough to be able to forget technique.' This, in a sense, is what he learnt to do with his painting. To let go and allow himself to be carried along by his own vital reactions to the powers of intuition. The colourful plants and shawls in the foreground of this painting are doing just what he asks of them, they are bursting out of the unseen bounds of the dark, mysterious, hidden-from-us space beyond the shutters. The vibrancy of the colours is enhanced by the muted, unfinished, even 'distressed', character of the background. In a T.V. interview given the year before his death, Campbell talks movingly of this living voice of the Spanish people, its rhythm and mood, its being there. He sees humour in the saddest flamenco and tragedy in the most humorous. He quotes a flamenco lyricist's words: 'I tell my sorrows singing because to sing is to cry. I tell my joys dancing because to dance is to laugh'. In this work he is telling his joys painting because to paint is to laugh. This painting is all about the joy he feels when in Spain. In an emotional voice in this final interview he speaks of 'giving himself over totally to the Spain of the ethereal light and mysterious nights; its introverted, extroverted people; its song and dance; its rugged and lace shapes and textures hard wrought by thousands of years.' He never gives us a detailed rendition of Spain: he captures its essence. Shapes and patterns are more important than detail. Yet with mere shapes and patterns he conjures up the history, the sadness, the romance, the sensuality and the joy of his beloved Espa?a. S?le Connaughton-Deeny, May 2008

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