ADAM'S - Important Irish Art Auction - 31st May 2017 (Click Lot title for more images and to Place Bid)

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154
Oil on canvas, 74 x 49cm (29 x 19¼’’)
Signed
‘Seated Female Nude’ is a carefully rendered painting. Again the emphasis is on the primacy of the figure and it is closer
to works such as ‘Academy Girl’ 1984 in terms of the level of detail and the relatively formal approach. Again the face is
absent, a void, as the artist is intent on capturing the figure only. Line is important here and the artist has limited the
build-up of paint to allow his drawing to remain centre stage. Blackshaw noted; “…many artists have been important, for
example Cezanne, and Giacometti in the painting of nudes.” (‘Afterwords’, Ferran, 1999, p125) “Beuys…I think he is one
of the loveliest draughtsmen I’ve seen in a long, long time since Degas. I think his line is beautiful…” (128). A later work of
the same seated subject, simply entitled ‘Nude’ 1994, shares affinities with this painting; the grey, square block shadow
behind the figure’s back, the absent face, and the cut-off composition that denies inclusion of the model’s feet. They
differ in that the later work features the model turned to the right in her chair, rather than this frontal composition.
Blackshaw had great respect for Dan O’Neill as an artist; [O’Neill]…did something that hadn’t been done here before. I
remember the nude that the Ulster Museum owns [oil on panel c.1972-3]. It’s a seated nude in a romantic background
– one of my big likes at the time.’ ( Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p66).
(Also see note at Lot 109)
Marianne O’Kane Boal, April 2017
€ 6,000 - 8,000