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108 FREDERICK E. MC WILLIAM HRUA RA (1909-1992) Forwards (1975)Bronze, 39 x 24 x 12cm (15¼ x 9½ x 4¾’’)
Signed with initials and numbered 1/5
Exhibited: ‘F.E. McWilliam Exhibition’, Waddington Galleries, London 1975.
Literature: ‘The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam’ by Denise Ferran, Catalogue Raisonne No.412, illustrated p.160.
See note at lot 109.
€ 8,000 - 12,000
Painting at a Troubled Time – A Belfast Collection (Lots 108 – 118)
This collection was formed by a man who in his professional life came into regular contact with some of the greatest artists of the time,
from Francis Bacon to Lucian Freud and David Hockney and established friendships with many Irish artists, including F.E. McWilliam
and Basil Blackshaw.
The wide-ranging group of work features many of the leading artists working in Northern Ireland during the period of the ‘Troubles’
and demonstrates the multiplicity of responses that this inspired. For some of these artists, such as Jack Pakenham, Dermot Seymour,
Victor Sloan and Rita Duffy, this became a significant element of their work but they each explored their subject in a highly individual
manner.
F.E. McWilliam felt impelled to respond to the events of the early 1970s although he was living in London; the ‘Banners’ series evoked a
populace trying to find a way through this period, sometimes desperate, sometimes angry, occasionally comic. Forward and Back-
wards, the two bronzes that bookend this collection, have a wry resonance even today.