George Campbell RHA (1917-1979)
Still Life with Sea Holly and Spanish Pot
Oil on board, 60 x 49.5cm (23½ x 19½'')
Signed

Exhibited: The Richie Hendricks Gallery, Dublin, September, 1967,...

George Campbell RHA (1917-1979)
Still Life with Sea Holly and Spanish Pot
Oil on board, 60 x 49.5cm (23½ x 19½'')
Signed

Exhibited: The Richie Hendricks Gallery, Dublin, September, 1967, Cat No. 13; George Campbell & The Belfast Boys, Adams, St. Stephens Green, Dublin, July and The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye Estate, Bangor Co Down, August, 2015, Cat No. 91.

 

Literature: George Campbell and the Belfast Boys by Karen Reihill, 2015, illustrated p.85.

 

Exhibited in 1967, Still Life with Sea Holly and Spanish Pot was executed during a high point in the artists career. After winning a number of awards including The President Hyde gold medal in 1966 for the best Irish historical painting, George and his wife Madge built a chalet type house in Virginia, Co. Cavan. During this period, he completed a series beginning with Musicians inspired from music sessions with local people in the village of Virginia. An admirer of Gris and Braque, Campbell experimented with abstraction and began to move away from his cubist style due to the popularity in abstract Expressionism. In the 1967 exhibition, ten still life paintings including Still life with Sea Holly and Spanish Pot formed a series which Campbell developed into the 1970s. These still life paintings often included Campbells cane chair and coffee pot. Campbell liked to work on several paintings at a time employing a variety of techniques with contrasting colour to achieve variations of form. In this work, light and dark colour is combined with cool and warms tones in a coherently balanced composition.

 

In the late 1960s some critics didnt like Campbell repeating the same theme in his exhibitions. Reviewing his 1967 exhibition, Brian Fallon commented, George Campbell seems to berepeating the same themes many times over. (IT 24/8/67) A few years later reviewing his work in another exhibition, he stated that his work was stale and stereotyped. (IT 30/4/71 pg.12) But Campbell explained his reasons for this the only way I have changed my subject matter is through my technique; my choice of subject matter has remained the same; my approach to it has gone through a variety of changes. (Western People17/7/65 pg. 9).

 

Karen Reihill

October, 2017

 

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