Adams Summer Loan Exhibition - George Campbell And The Belfat Boys 7th July - 3rd September 2015

138 / 170

138
The Troubles in Belfast forced Una and Paddy Boyce 187 to immigrate to Malaga in the
early 1970s, where they became part of Campbell’s social circle. They were involved with
Campbell’s friends, Enrique Pérez Almaya, Wesley Boyd, Albert Meagle, the Walsh’s, Manus
Walsh, Antonio Sierra and many others to mark the occasion of the naming of ‘Glorieta Jorge
Campbell’ (fig.251). In 2006, they took part in the documentary film, Looking for George.
Returning to Madrid to work in the financial markets, Ángel Ancuncion Goñi organized a
solo exhibition for Armstrong at Galleria Avignón, Madrid, in 1974.188 Two years later, July
1977, he arranged with the Kreisler Gallery in Madrid to hold a joint show of Campbell and
Armstrong, 189 opened by the Irish Ambassador, Charles Whelan.
From the 1960s, Campbell suffered from a number of health issues, including problems
with his ‘sinus’ and with ‘dizziness’ and ‘brain storms’.190 In January 1974, while staying with
his friend Von Reiswitz in Malaga, Campbell executed a series of fifteen autobiographical
cartoons, ‘Villa Pastilla’, reflecting his state of feeling ‘blue’. Despite the support of friends,
he couldn’t sleep, paint or play his guitar. This depression191 was likely linked to the death
of Gerard Dillon. Tom McGurk recalled, ‘George walked around with a ghost…I felt he
[Gerard] was always there with him.’192 Working towards shows at the Watergate Gallery,
Washington,193 as well as a joint show with Von Reiswitz in 1974, (C) ‘Stefan and George
Campbell’, the artist wrote to his mother in Belfast: ‘I would have written or gone up before
now but I’ve not been too well in many ways – a series of not feeling well days.’194
187Paddy Boyce was a journalist with the Belfast Newsletter.
188Letter from Ángel Anunción Goni to Armstrong, 25 October 1973.
189Conversation with Angel Anunción Goni, 14 January 2014.
190Interview with George Walsh and Janet Walsh, 21 November 2013 and 31 July 2014.
191This researcher is given to understand that Campbell received psychiatric help for depression.
192Interview with Tom McGurk, 26 May 2014.
193St Patrick’s Day, 1975.
194Arthur Campbell’s papers, PRONI, D/4122//75.
fig.224: Arthur Armstrong’s solo exhibition
catalogue, Madrid, 1974.
fig.225: George Campbell with ‘Street Musicians,
Malaga’ in his studio, 2 Florence Terrace, 1960’s