Important Irish Art
,
wednesday !"th May !#$% at &pm
131
124
Patrick Pye RHA (b.1929-)
!e Implements of !e Passion
Oil and Tempera on canvas, 78 x 65.5cm (30$ x 25$”)
Signed
Exhibited:
Patrick Pye Exhibition
, David Hendriks Gallery,
March/April 1970, Cat. No. 15
Provenance: From the collection of Dr J.B. Kearney and
!e Kearney Sale
in these rooms December 2007, Cat. No.
8 where purchased by the current owner
Literature: Illustrated front cover of the Hendriks Gallery
exhibition catalogue
In private correspondence the artist explained his thoughts
behind this work :-
“It wasn’t that I thought the Christ story was a legend.
It was that the Passion was something so enormous that
it created ripples that are still coming towards us across
time. I was trying to come to the cruci&xion through the
ripples. !e dear to the right was a symbol of state. !e
foreground &gures are John (!e Beloved) with Our Lady
seated. Later I did a triptych with a similar work to this as
its centerpiece” !e artist also produced an etching of that
triptych years later in 1996 both of which were shown at
the “Patrick Pye Retrospective” at the RHA in 1997.
Brian Fallon in his review of the 1970 Hendrik’s show
thought “this is one of the best exhibitions Dublin has seen
in some time”.
Although the critic found the artists religious work lacked
real spontaneity and heart, he also stated “Pye’s e)orts
to create a latter-day Christian art and to come to terms
with traditional religious iconography are worthy of real
respect,particularly when the intellectual climate seems so
hostile. His ideas are high,and they are backed by genuine
intellectual power and scholarship.”
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