Adam's Important Irish Art September 26th 2018

66 56 FREDERICK E. MCWILLIAM HRUA RA (1909-1992) Woman of Belfast No.7 (1972) Bronze, 32.5cm high x 30cm long x 20.5cm wide (12¾ x 11¾ x 8’’) Signed with initials and numbered 5/5 This edition was included as part of the exhibition ‘Women of Belfast. New Bronzes by F.E. McWilliam’, The Dawson Gallery, Dublin 4 –20 October 1973 “The things you start a theme with are usually the very best at the beginning. After a while a sort of repetition seems to set it… and they make it more sophisticated, they make it perhaps more complicated.” - F.E McWiliam interview with Louisa Buck for the Irish Art Series, 1983, p.5 Tate Gallery Archive. Working in series is not unique to McWilliam, artists often fixed upon one theme for a number of years, producing a range of work based around the same subject matter. This method of creation of- ten acted as a way of working through an idea, by making repeated works of a single form, in McWil- liam’s case the female body. His Women of Belfast series (1972 - 1975) of which this present example is Woman No 7 , changed over the course of the three years, his initial figures were unclothed, he later added the drapery for a more realistic effect. As a response to the sectarian violence of The Troubles, McWilliam’s figure of a woman thrown to the ground in the aftermath of an explosion represents the scores of civilian casualties in Northern Ireland. His inspiration for the work came from images in the media following the bombing of the Abercorn restaurant in Belfast in March 1972. Of the two fatalities, both were women, which may indicate why McWilliam decided to depict the female casualties rather than male. Equally, the series was an expression of how often in times of conflict, it is women and children who become victims of these senseless atrocities. The female figures act as a representation of the private domestic world which has been forcefully intruded upon by these public acts of violence. As sensitive as the subject matter is it always difficult to reflect on the aesthetic qualities of the work. The sculptures are in many ways profoundly tragic, yet art at its most powerful should be emotive and it raises the difficult question of how, as an artist, to respond to this suffering. In the work McWilliam is bearing witness to these victims. In this present example, the figure is caught in mid-fall, her body thrown backwards, one leg ex- tending out before her the other bent at the knee, bracing herself against the blast. The base for the figure is delineated in such a way as to create an almost a two dimensional impression of the body above, a sense of depth below her into which she will inevitably fall. The texture of the bronze captures the force of the explosion, her dress flattened against her body, hands raised instinctively to protect her face, which remains anonymous. The indecency and complete violation of her body is expressed by her dress lifted almost beyond her waist. McWilliam had never before used his sculpture to directly comment on political or social issues of his country of birth, but moved by the tragedy he felt compelled to create the series, which after nearly fifty years since its inception, holds an undeniable power. Niamh Corcoran, August 2018 € 25,000 - 30,000