Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)
The Fall triptych
Triptych, graphite, charcoal and white conte on paper, separately framed, 37 x 75cm (14½ x 29½''); 47 x 75cm (18½ x 29½''); and 39 x...

Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)
The Fall triptych
Triptych, graphite, charcoal and white conte on paper, separately framed, 37 x 75cm (14½ x 29½''); 47 x 75cm (18½ x 29½''); and 39 x 76cm (15¼ x 19¾'')
Each signed

Provenance: The Artist; Grant Fine Art, Newcastle Co. Down; Private Collection

The Fall Triptych is one from a series of works done by Blackshaw in the 1970s and the early 1980's. These works are both magnificent and terrifying in their dramatic depiction of a steeplechase and the electrifying moments where a jockey is parting company with his mount. The triptych provides the artist with the opportunity to stop-frame the event, where we see the moment of no return as the horse hits the fence, the crash and finally the fall, leaving us to wonder and worry about their respective fates. Unlike some of the other singular works from the series Basil, in these three separate images, captures the motion, the slowed down inevitability of the fall of both horse and jockey.

 

Basil Blackshaw had, according to Eamonn Mallie, horses in his blood, something he inherited from his father. Basil loved risk and playing with danger and this characteristic became evident in much of his art but nowhere more intense that in these works. Paintings such as The Fall (1976); Grand National (Foinavon's Year)(1977) and others from this series come from a phase of Blackshaw's output in the seventies which reflect the extraordinary turmoil in his private life. His marriage to Australian artist Anna Ritchie fell apart around the start of the decade but despite this and ongoing bouts of drinking, Blackshaw ruthlessly captured the very essence of his subject regardless of the circumstances.

Eamonn Mallie writes that Blackshaw continued to live in the heart of the country in County Down and Antrim where all his raw material was outside his door. He was always surrounded by dogs and doggie men, horses and horsey men. He was in love with nature and nature lovedhim.He always felt at home running his hand across 'an aul horse' of which he spoke so often.

We are grateful to Eamonn Mallie, whose writings on the artist formed the basis for this catalogue entry.

 

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