On the eve of a major exhibition of innovative new work to be shown at the Ulster Museum from 6 December, BRIAN MCAVERA finds painter Basil Blackshaw in magisterial mood
To have the sheer effrontery to terminate your hallmark images, and seemingly change tack on a major scale, is the mark of a man who knows his own mind. Basil Blackshaw, appreciated by critics, collectors and the general public, is in his seventies. He’s already done enough to earn himself a secure listing in the route map of Irish art. Known and loved for his figurative studies of horses, dogs, game cocks and ‘doggie men’, his oeuvre, leavened by landscapes, nudes, and portraits, fits in perfectly with the traditional idea of the Irish Painter. He can be seen, with ease, as in distinct line of descent from the likes of Paul Henry, William Conor, Sean Keating and Dan O’Neill
The Lemon Street Gallery, in collaboration with RTÉ, are currently hosting an exhibition marking the fiftieth anniversary of the photography of Dublin by Nevill Johnson. For the first time a chronological account of Nevill Johnson’s artistic career is illustrated; mainly through photography, but also incorporating his painting and writing. The paintings range from the early 1940s to the ‘London’ paintings. The occasion also marks the launch of the Nevill Johnson Annual Award to assist emerging artists in the North and the South of Ireland, thereby acknowledging the influence of Belfast and Dublin on Nevill Johnson’s artistic development. At the height of his career as a painter Nevill Johnson turned to photography; Eoin O’Brien and Dickon Hall explain why