Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
The Past and the Present
Oil on board, 50.5 x 61cm (19¾ x 24'')
Signed

Provenance: Previously in the Merrion Hotel Collection.

Literature: 'The Art Collection at...

Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
The Past and the Present
Oil on board, 50.5 x 61cm (19¾ x 24'')
Signed

Provenance: Previously in the Merrion Hotel Collection.

Literature: 'The Art Collection at the Merrion Hotel', (1st edition), full page illustration p.14.

Cycling around the Aran Islands during the War, Dillon was fascinated by the wealth of archaeological and cultural material on the Islands. His interest in Irelands ancient past coincided with meeting Drogheda artist Nano Reid (1900-1981), who had a lifelong interest in the Prehistoric remains in Irelands Ancient East. Together they visited the passage tombs and monastic ruins in the Boyne Valley throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s to seek out inspiration for subject matter.

 

In the late 1940s, Dillon was focused on two themes, the living and the dead and the past and the present. This work, The Past in The Present belongs to the latter and was probably executed after staying with Nano Reid in Drogheda in 1949. In the same year, Dillon held two exhibitions, a solo exhibition of watercolours in May at the Drogheda Municipal Art Gallery and a joint exhibition with Allen (Tate) Adams at the CEMA Gallery in Belfast. The influence of Celtic Crosses in the Boyne Valley is evident in both exhibitions. Reviewing the exhibition in Drogheda, one critic noted Dillons interest in High Crosses, There are panels from the High Crosses at Monasterboice, painted with a restricted palette and convey the simple dignity of these designs. (Drogheda Independent 7/5/49)

 

The past confronts the viewer by way of a doorway of carved stone panels and through an open door, the present is represented by two women in a landscape dressed in shawls and petticoats. In the 1940s, women in the West of Ireland traditionally wore red petticoats and woven black woollen shawls to protect their upper bodies. The large panel on the right depicts two monks in ceremonial robes with shaved heads and curled moustaches. The monks with curled moustaches resemble the artist and are repeated in another work The Community exhibited a year later at Dillons solo exhibition at Victor Waddington Galleries. The door surround consists of smaller panels of animals and figures which were inspired from the medieval carvings located in the Boyne Valley. After his visit to Drogheda, Dillon returned to London to prepare for his exhibition in December with Tate Adams. From his basement flat in Abbey Road, he wrote a letter to John Hewitt in December, 1949 who was writing an introduction essay for the catalogue.

When I was in Monasterboice I was carried away by the old carving on the Celtic

Crosses. I loved the wee mens Walrus moustaches. They all looked like

bowlegged Douglas Hydes. Im now working on the panel idea. Its great fun

dividing up the canvas into sections and trying to make each section a complete

thing yet holding it all together.

 

Dillon continued to develop the panel idea in the 1950s where self-portraits and walrus moustaches appear in other mediums. Strings of beads act as a moustache attached to a Papier- Mâché head and bald heads and curling moustaches and are visible among Celtic knots and interlacing patterns bordering watercolours usually seen in ornamented Celtic manuscripts.

 

Karen Reihill

October, 2015

 

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