Adam's The Deborah Brown Collection 1st October 2024

14 logical succession, however, was to be re- minded of the methodical and systematic manner in which Deborah had developed as an artist. The various stages of her career flowed naturally from one body of work to the next, making it impossible not to recog- nise the extraordinary nature of the studio collection we were contemplating. When our catalogue was finally complete in the autumn of 2022, after intermittent stops and starts during the Covid pandemic, we spent a fascinating morning with Deborah listening to her memories of making the work; her comments on the conception of the various pieces, and how they were pub- licly received at the time. She was entirely sanguine and perhaps a little amused by the controversy that her work had generat- ed amongst contemporary Irish critics and collectors when it was first exhibited, par- ticularly in Dublin. David Hendriks gave her enormous support and encouragement, but this did not regularly translate into sales. Perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, this was a fortunate turn of events for collectors perusing this catalogue today. The overarching qualities of Deborah’s per- sonality were, to our minds, her gentility, intelligence and modesty. And, not least, her respectful appreciation of her person- al circumstances, which meant that she did not have to rely on sales of her art to make a living during her career, and was able to make art without any compromise. Our en- thusiasm for her work and our belief in its significance must have been obvious, and in subsequent meetings Deborah was keen for us to pursue the ideas we suggested for future exhibitions that we believed would bring greater public awareness and appre- ciation of her work. Deborah would have been delighted to see her paintings, drawings, prints and sculp- ture placed here at Adam’s alongside the work of her contemporaries, marking the beginnings of a serious reassessment of her place within the canon of post-war Irish art. We have been grateful for the support of Seán Kissane at the Irish Museum of Mod- ern Art, who generously guided us through the intricacies of cataloguing a collection of this nature. Seán, and his colleague Chris- tina Kennedy, have understood Deborah’s work and its significance in a way that would have brought her enormous pleasure. With the guidance and encouragement of Deb- orah’s close friends Hilary Pyle (who has written so eloquently about her work) and Barbara Fitzgerald, and the support of her Estate, much has already been achieved to ensure that Deborah’s work, and the full- ness of her achievement, will be rediscov- ered and appreciated. Even in her nineties, Deborah retained a deep and dignified confidence in her art. We like to think of her as a true revolution- ary, self-effacing but with the steely self-be- lief and determination required to make work that is entirely authentic and chal- lenging, regardless of prevailing fashions. We believe that this collection is at once radical, complex and historically significant, and that now is the time for it to be looked at with a fresh gaze. Dickon Hall & Jane Beattie, September 2024