donal o'sullivan (1945-1991)
Donal O'Sullivan was born in Dublin in 1945. He was educated at Blaclaock College and studied architecture at Bolton Street College for one year. He went on to study art and sculpture at the National College of Art and Design and was awarded a Diploma in 1969.
He exhibited at the Neptune Gallery, the Gerald Davis Gallery, the Lad Lane Gallery, the Kennedy Gallery, all one man shows, also in the Oireachtas. His work was exhibited at the Cork Arts Society Gallery and is in many private and public collections throughout Ireland.
He lectured in the Dunlaoire School of Art for six years.
Donal was an extremely prolific artist, having thirteen one man shows over a fifteen year period. This retrospective exhibition of his drawings and paintings shows the extraordinary range and variety of powerful work which he fed into the bloodstream of Irish art over twenty years.
A few words from the man himself:-·
"My almost obsessional interest in Samuel Beckett is explained by the twin factors of a love of Beckett and his work and a close resemblance of Beckett to my father. I see Beckett's writings as essentially messages of hope and not hYmns of despair as so many ~ee them." Donal O'Sullivan
"If art could be explained in words there would be no need to paint. It's those aspects of life we cannot explain which make art necessary. I'm not really a portrait painter in the strict sense. I use the faces of people like Garb 0 and Beckett as a starting point - very often they are unrecognizable when finished." Donal O'Sullivan
"I only paint people who give me some starting point. People are like onions, each layer is true in itself but different from all the others. The problem is to make a whole of the layers as they present themselves." Donal O'Sullivan
Donal O'Sullivan is an artist dedicated to his work, who refuses to paint anything except what he chooses. He concentrates almost completely on the human fonn. The first signs of his talent were found in drawings of soccer players in every conceivable position when he was an enthusiastic fan of the sport at a very early age. He was born in Dublin in 1945, the youngest son of a family of four boys, and two girls. His parents were both from West Cork. They both had a fanning background. They married and moved to Dublin in 1936 and opened a grocery shop. His mother died when Donal was only 19 yrs. of a heart" attack and his father died in 1975 of cancer. There is no trace of artistic talent on either side of the family.
Donal was educated in Blackrock College. After leaving school he went on to study architecture in Bolton Street Technical College, but after studying for one year he felt completely frustrated as this was not the area in which he could express his artistic ability to its fullest. He decided to study art in the National College of Art instead. He showed outstanding ability from the very beginning of his studies there. He specialized in sculpture in the college and received his diploma in 1969. He lives in Ranelagh in the house where he was born and works in his studio in the back garden - which he refers to as the shed (a converted hen house).
While he was still a student at college a car pulled up beside h~ on the street and the driver introduced himself as Gerald Davis and offered him an exhibition at the Davis . Gallery in Capel Street. (Every student's dream).
He never attends his opening nights and so his work has to stand completely on its own. This has gained him the reputation of a recluse. It creates a type of mystique around him. It means that although many people have his work hanging in their homes, very few have ever seen him or know what he looks like. On one opening night 100% ofms work sold, yet as far as he can remember he has never received more than £600. for one of his pictures. For an artist who has received a fair amount of critical acclaim it is a surprise to find how much his life exemplifies the artist's struggle to survive. His financial position I was less precarious when he lectured for six years at the Dun Laoghaire School of Art,
but now prefers to work on his own in bursts of energy, sometimes painting for 12 hours a day. His technique alternates between pastels, oils and carbon. As to who buys his paintings, he seems disinterested, always selling through a dealer. He is a prolific artist, working in groups of20 paintings at a time, which may take him 2-3 months to complete. He is an artist who paints what he wants to paint rather than what he or anybody else thinks will sell. I admire his courage in doing this. He has exhibited widely including 13 one-man shows in the Neptune, Lad Lane and Davis Galleries and Timmerman's Wine Cellar.
He avoids portrait commissions. He will only paint a face which has a special interest or appeal to him. He paints and draws in a style uniquely his own in pursuit of his own inclinations. When it comes to discussing his work he is circumspect. "If art could be explained in words there would be no need to paint. It's those aspects of life we cannot explain which make art necessary. I'm not really a portrait painter in the strict sense. I use the faces of people like Garbo and Beckett as a starting point - very often they are unrecognizable when finished."
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These faces, together with others as familiar (both the living -( Nureyen, Bob Dylan,
Mick Jagger and the dead faces of Napoleon, Rembrandt) appear frequently in his paintings comprising work full of vision and sometimes painting from life and sometimes from photographs, which he considers as a ligitimate starting point. His paintings are peopled with soldiers, artists and musicians, more for what they represent than for the interest of the face alone. "I only paint people who give me some starting point. People are like onions, each layer is true in itself but different from all the others. The problem is to make a whole ofthe layers as they present themselves."
He has studied and mastered the techniques of classical draughtsmanship to the point where more than one critic has written that his work might have come from a Renaissance studio.
The major theme of his later work could.be said to be victory over pain. He sets out to show that, no matter what pain and harrowing experiences the subject has suffered they have emerged strong and dignified, symbols of the value of human beings.
He has a special feeling for portraits of women and because he is a strong follower of the Women's Movement always shows that despite the inequalities and suffering they endure they remain beautiful, graceful and enduring.
He has also explored the theme of the androgynous nature of human beings - depicting a very feminine beautiful female head linked to a heavily muscled contorted male back and torso.
His interest in the Renaissance artists can be seen in his Family Group where three Leonardoesque figures blend into carefully drawn classical drapery.
His involvement with religion led him to do a Head of a Man, one of his strongest drawings, which many have mistaken for a head of Christ. There are also features in it which have made people comment that it is partly a self-portrait.
His drawing of Colette, the French writer is a demonstration of the way in which human beings can remain dignified and graceful despite old age and the wear and tear of the passage of time. In the Colette drawing the fine catlike quality of the features and the magnificent gray mass of hair are captured in ultra-fine rapidiograph ink rendering mixed with a looser, freer pen work for the clothes and sleeve. He has also done some very strong drawings on the female writer Isaac Dinesen or Karen Blixen.
He has explored nature in landscape and animal studies which very strongly depict the evolutionary nature of reality.
A superficial glance at his work would tend to make one feel that there IS an overal melancholy, gloomy quality. A closer examination shows that his work is conceme( with the celebration and joy of the victory of living things over death and gloom.
His almost obsessional interest in Samuel Beckett (one of which was bought by Charle:
Haughey) is explained by the twin factors of a love of Beckett and his work and a closl resemblance of Beckett to his father. Donal, by the way, sees Beckett's writings a essentially messages of hope and not hymns to despair as so many see them.
Though he works mostly in pastel, oil and carbon, his experimentation with other medi has produced a very delicate unusual study of a feather done in spray paint.
He has done sculptural heads of Giacometti, Francis Stuart and Negroid studies of th human head as well as a very delicate, beautiful female head and shoulders.
His very fine carbon drawings are not always small, he has done three very larg compositions in carbon, one of which is on display in Timmerman's Wine Cellar. The display his capacity to integrate an intricate number of elements into a strOTI composition.
His one of many portraits done in oils of Francis shows that he can work in a free loO! almost Bacon-like quality, mixed with Rembrandt-like use of every available implemeJ to bring the slashes and toned areas into a coherent whole.
He has never received a penny from any Government Agency including the Arts Counc:
He works alone in a converted henhouse/shed which he imself describes as a sort I organized mayhem. The shed on first glance is a Francis Bacon like debris of twen years collection of materials, equipment, photographs, sculptures, which looks like t01
Though not known as an oil painter, Donal has done many oils on different themes, some of which are done with such dry paint that they are often mistaken for pastels.
He has completed one massive oil painting 8 foot by 4 foot,which originally included 36 figures.
His oil portrait of Patrick Pearse was composed to show the lonely isolated visionary aspect ofthe man.
His interest in Oriental art can be seen in such subjects as the tiny delicate oriental dancer called "Kimone" and his pastel drawing on tissue paper called "Pillow-Fight" which depicts the Eastern custom of playing erotic games as a preliminary to love-making.
He has explored the theme of lesbianism in works such as "Friends" and "Liaison" which emphasise the warmth and friendship of lesbian relationships rather than the erotic aspect.
Some of his works are so accomplished in technique that they have been mistaken for photographs and has taken photographs which show he can be an outstanding photographer in his own right. He has taken one series of particularly fine photographs of a red-haired and black-haired girl based on Stendhals novel "The Red and the Black". He has also written poetry, one on the same theme.
One writer has written of him"His life is constructed out of his work - he eats sleeps and lives surrounded by his drawings, portraits and sculptures. If he ran out of materials he would draw with a burnt matchstick on the floor."
Another has written, "It is almost as if he has been in love with each subject he has painted at one time or another. If it were so one could appreciate the intimacy with which he treats each subject. Of course, this is hardly the case but it shows how much of himself he puts into the rendering of each subject."
Even in his drawing of a geriatric ward, while some of the patients seem strong and vigorous he includes as if on television idealistic revolutionaries like Patrick Pearse and a girl who died in the Hungarian Revolt of 1956 blended with an image of one of Rembrandt's visionary old men; again hope is the theme.
His portrait drawing of Siegfried Sasson, one of his best carbon drawings, is a tribute to the wisdom and experience of a man who survived to write brilliantly of a Wodd War.
Some of his most delicate and finest work is done on bread tissue paper a technique he invented himself.
His strongest pastels, the ones with most power and depth, are done on imported hand made Japanese paper, a technique which he has made his own, characteristic of some of his best work.
He has a unique colour sense, unlike any other artist working in Ireland combining subdued complementary colours with almost violent clashes of contrasting colours.
He works very irregular hours and can be seen emerging ITom his work-shed at all hours of the day and night. When he is in one of his furious bursts of energy he works more than a twelve hour day. He has also experimented with lithography and etching producing some very varied work.
There is a strong negroid influence in many of his works dating back to his interest in Negro Sculpture while he was a student. His sculptural training brings a very vigorous sense at three dimensional form to his two dimensional work.
He has invented a form of structural hatching which is an extension of cross-hatching to give the subject a more vital sculptural form. He has done a very striking image of a child's skull wearing a gas mask as a protest against not only the hazards of nuclear
power but the way in which nuclear radiation affects generations to come. This drawing was used as a poster in the anti-nuclear campaign.
His drawings and portraits of contemporary musicians and performers, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Elvis Presley indicate his passion for music ranging from Negro spiritual through classical to contemporary pop music.
He has done a very dynamic portrait of Beethoven at the time the composer was deaf composing some of his finest music.
With all the sources and influences visible in his work from primitive Negro sculpture, through the Greeks, the Renaissance, Degas, Lautrec, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Vermeer, Michelangelo, he has evolved a unique unmistakable style of his own.
A retrospective show of his work would show the extraordinary range and variety of powerful work while he has fed into the bloodstream of Irish art 13 one man exhibitions.
I believe that Donal Q'Sullivan is the most interesting and talented artist of our time and feel sure that he will play a very important role in the history of art.
Bibliography:
Article in Image Magazine
Cuttings from Newspapers Interviews with Donal Q'Sullivan +