Brian Fallon recalls his first impression on meeting Mary Swanzy and her Gauguin moment conceived during a visit to Samoa
Mary Swanzy is a maverick but major figure in Irish art, one who resists labelling or categorizing, and on whom, so far, no really adequate body of critical opinion or biographical data exists. There are, no doubt, sound theses and academic records, either complete or in preparation, but there is no full-scale, biographical study that I know of – and this in the case of a fascinating and outstandingly gifted woman whose life and work urgently demand it. Well-meaning feminists may try to interpret her in terms of their personal orthodoxy, but while this may have its own validity, for the average art-lover it is likely to prove simplistic or partisan. Swanzy certainly typified the ‘enlightened’ woman of her generation, yet somehow she remained a loner and an individualist, both in life and art, who defies all generalizations.
Eleanor Flegg visits ceramicist Mark Campden’s Kilkenny studio to witness the process behind his gleaming table-ware
Paula Murphy examines the background to Oisín Kelly’s immortalization of Big Jim Larkin commissioned by the workers of Ireland
Technical developments enable artistic development’: John Behan reflects on the circumstances which spurred his move to sculpture, in conversation here with Brian McAvera