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Gerard Dillon (1920-1971)
Door Ajar
Oil on board, 30.5 x 49.5cm (12 x 19½”)
Signed
Provenance: From the Collection of George andMauraMcClelland and on loan from them to IMMA from 1999 - 2004;
Private Collection Dublin
Exhibited:
Gerard Dillon Retrospective
, Droichead Arts Centre Jan/Feb 2003;
Art Tank Gallery, Belfast, Feb/March 2003;
Nano Reid and Gerard Dillon Exhibition
, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Nov 2009/ Jan 2010, F.E.
McWilliam Museum, Jan-April 2010;
Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships
, Adam’s, Dublin, July 2013,The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, August
2013, Cat. No. 78
Literature:
Nano Reid and Gerard Dillon
2009, full page illustration p.32;
Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships
Karen Reihill 2013, illustration p.89
From the mid 1950’s, Gerard Dillon’s Connemara images became less primitive and his interest lay primarily in
colour, shape and design. Children feature in many of his works in different mediums during the 1950’s and 60’s,
perhaps recalling his childhood playground in the redbrick streets of Industrial Belfast.
Door Ajar
is stylistically similar to another work from the same period,
Girl at Door.
Both depict a dark haired girl
inside an open door. In
Door Ajar
however, Dillon has devised a pictorial technique by employing a bold colour
on the door to direct the viewer’s eye to the child holding a book. This technique can be seen in another work,
Tea
Break
from the same period. By directing our attention to the young girl, Dillon has disguised his central interest
in colour, shape and design.
Enthralled by the simple lives of the people in the West of Ireland Dillon took holiday breaks from odd jobs in
London in the 1940’s and 50’s to seek out subject matter in preparation for exhibitions. The artist’s Biographer,
James White stated, “He cultivated simplicity and a love of childhood openness and honesty and he was the only
artist whom I ever believed was really sincere when he declared that he wanted to paint with a child’s directness.”
Karen Reihill
Currently researching Gerard Dillon & Friends
€10,000 - 15,000
