Auctions can be great fun and can help you find incredible bargains on art that you can’t find elsewhere. In Ireland in particular there is a huge amount of talent in the art scene, so if you ever find yourself as an art auction in Belfast, then look out for some pieces from the artists below!
Pauline Bewick
Bewick is a prominent Irish artist, employing oils, sculpts and watercolours to create her pieces.
Bewick was born in 1935 and spent much of her childhood moving between England and Ireland with her mother and sister. The family eventually settled in County Kerry, where the artist continues to live and work. After graduating from Dublin’s National College of Art and Design, Bewick left Ireland and moved to London, where she was employed by the BBC as an illustrator for their animated children’s series’.
Bewick’s most famous project is her Yellow Man project. The project encompasses a number of works, all of which feature a yellow horned figure.
Sean Keating
Sean Keating was born in Limerick, Ireland, in September.
He was a prolofic romantic painter, painting images of the Irish Water of Independence and focussing his work on exploring the industrialisation of Ireland.
As a student, Keating studied at the limerick Technical School or art before moving to the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. In 1914, Keating won an award for his painting, The Reconciliation; he used his £50 prize money to fund a trip to London. Keating returned to Ireland in early 1916 and found the country in the throes of civil war. The war in Ireland influenced Keating profoundly, and many of his works (including Men of the South and An Allegory) depict the war and its effects.
Mainie Jellett
Mary Harriet ‘Mainie’ Jellet was born in Dublin in 1897. As an artist, she became famous for her abstract artwork, the most famous of which, the ‘Decoration’, was displayed at the Society of Dublin Painters. Jellett was championed as one of the founders of the abstract modern movement in Ireland.
Jellett studied in Dublin at the Metropolitan School of Art before moving to London and then to Paris to study non-representational art. Jellet co-founded the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943 alongside her friend Evie Hone, with whom she had travelled to Paris.
Jellet died in 1944 at the age of 46. Jellet was deeply religious, and although none of her works appear to directly depict religious figures, many of them have religious titles and religious themes.
Francis Bacon
Irish painter Bacon is most famous for his disturbing works of art. His dark and abstract work was famously described as ‘dreadful’ by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thematically, Bacon’s work was designed to explore the psychological issues associated with death and consciousness. In 2013, one of Bacon’s pieces, the Three Studies of Lucian Freud, sold for an astonishing $142,405,000. The piece – an oil on canvas painting – became the highest selling piece of artwork in Britain.
Norah McGuiness
Norah McGuiness was an Irish painter; she was born in Ireland in 1901, and died in Dublin in 1980. Like many of her counterparts, Norah spent her youth studying at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. After graduating from the school, she moved to London and commenced studying at the Chelsea Polytechnic. Norah’s stay in Britain was relatively short-lived, and the artist quickly moved back to Ireland to find work as an illustrator in Dublin.
Norah was interested in exploring cubism and painting vibrantly coloured landscapes. In 1968, Norah was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Trinity College Dublin in recognition of her contribution to Irish art. Following the death of her friend Mainie, Norah also became the president of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art.
*Collaborative Post*
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