Adam's The Antoinette and Patrick J.Murphy Collection 23rd October 2019

90 78 BASIL BLACKSHAW HRHA RUA (1932-2016) Seated Figure (Jude) Oil on canvas, 99 x 84cm (39 x 33“) Signed and inscribed April 2000; also signed and inscribed with title verso Provenance: With the Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin. € 15,000 - 20,000 For over three decades, Jude Stephens’ form filled the canvases that marched from Basil Blackshaw’s studio, her tell-tale dark hair and pink skin delighting his brush and engaging his inspiration. A trained anthropologist, Jude clicked with Basil not on account of her ability for art but, instead, over a mutual love of the countryside and the animals that reside there. This shared interest laid the foundations for a bond that was to define the latter part of Blackshaw’s artistic career. A Northern Irish artist, Basil Blackshaw studied in Belfast and learned his trade at a time when British and Irish art was relatively constrained. Blackshaw’s scruffy and seemingly careless style was not to be applauded and he was often told by his tutor to pay more attention to lines. Thankfully, in his defiant manner, Blackshaw ignored this advice and went on to produce such pieces as the current lot. Seated Figure comes to us from a part of Blackshaw’s oeuvre when, from the 1980s onwards, he took a keen interest in the human form and, in particular, the female nude. With his characteristically messy brushstrokes, Blackshaw blends his figure with that of her surroundings, focussing his piece not on the anatomical form of his subject matter but rather on the presence and sense of self that it commands. Hunched over in thought, we are invited to witness a personal moment in which the sitter seems una- ware of her audience. As a private man, Blackshaw often deliberately sought to shun the limelight and, here, the viewer sees this side of the artist projected onto his model. Finding solitude behind a curtain of hair, this portrayal of Jude reminds us of a time when Blackshaw attended one of his own exhibitions masked by a paper bag, a desperate attempt to highlight the unwanted scrutiny under which great talent often falls. Blackshaw’s mindset is further laid bare in the hurried, almost frantic brushstrokes that assault his can- vas. As someone who saw his artistic inclination as a gift which had been granted, Blackshaw lived with the fear that one day it might be taken away. We can see this prevalent anxiety behind each mark as the artist fights to realise his muse before it is too late. Through a feverous outpouring of emotion, Blackshaw has transformed Jude’s naked body into a bold statement of the human psyche. Looking at the image, the viewer is confronted by the intangible and forced to empathise with the complex nature of the human condition. When asked about Basil, Jude once replied that ‘he was a man who found wonder in ordinary things and transformed them into some- thing extraordinary that will live on’. Seated Figure is a physical testament to that statement, proof that Blackshaw could take an unassuming form and relay it in a manner that was anything but expected. Helena Carlyle, September 2019