Marianne O’Kane Boal hopes a touring retrospective on the work of Brian Ballard will convey the full trajectory of his practice from figuration to abstraction
Brian Ballard is a renowned Irish colourist. He was born in Belfast in 1943, where he studied drawing and painting at the College of Art (1961-1964), and afterwards at the Liverpool College of Art (1964-1965). In 1966, he took up a post with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland where he worked as Exhibitions Officer until 1985. The artist began painting in a figurative vein as he underwent his training in Belfast and Liverpool. Early influences on his figurative work are diverse: from Frank Auerbach and Paul Cezanne to William Scott and William Conor. From the mid 1960s, however, he adopted an abstract approach to his subjects, which was to last about ten years. Ballard’s adaption of a form of abstract painting was well received and his success was recognized when he won the Carroll Prize in 1970 at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Kenneth Jamison wrote in 1971, Brian Ballard is possibly one of the most promising painters of the younger generation. While he occasionally painted landscapes in a deceptively simple idiom, his major works are now sophisticated essays in light and movement. Although abstract they seek some equation for the ever changing pulsation and vibration of light.”
The new Lexicon is a worthy member of Dublin’s distinguished group of public libraires, writes James Howley in his appraisal of the controversial new building.
It is the implication of something beyond a simple landscape that makes Martin Gale’s art so compelling, writes Alison FitzGerald as his exhibition continues at Taylor Galleries, Dublin