Tony O’Malley (1913-2003) – Summer Breeze, Callan, Co. Kilkenny 1981 UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,500 AT HAMMER
From a unique modernist take by John Luke of a dead tree in 1933 and Paul Henry’s 1929 view of The Great Sugarloaf to a 2003 oil on panel diptych of Birds in our Saltee Islands by Elizabeth Cope, a seascape by Donald Teskey and Children playing at the seaside by Dorothea Sharpe (1874-1955) Ireland in all its multiple glories is celebrated in the art at Whyte’s sale in Dublin on the evening of December 1.
Whyte’s has valued the 143 lots on offer at €1.2 million, a measure of how far the market has progressed in the first quarter of the 21st century. Summer Breeze, Callan, Co. Kilkenny by Tony O’Malley marries the influence of his native place with the light of the Bahamas. The partially abstracted oil on board, full of flowing movement, has an estimate of €12,000-€18,000. The photo realism of another Kilkenny born artist stands in sharp contrast to this work. Now based in west Cork the artist John Doherty’s c2000 edgy, dramatic and architectural painting of the Poolbeg Lighthouse has an estimate of €18,000-€22,000.
The heavily worked White House, Shooting Star by John Shinnors – approached in another entirely different way – offers a contrasting and pleasing landscape scene by night.
JOHN LUKE – THE DEAD TREE UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Diversity in Irish art is nothing new. The two leading lots of the auction, The Dead Tree by John Luke and The Great Sugarloaf by Paul Henry could not be more different. Painted just a couple of years apart and representing classical and modern style each one is estimated at €100,000-€150,000.
There is art by Leo Whelan, Roderic O’Conor, Eva Hamilton, Frank McKelvey, Dan O’Neill, Patrick Collins, Rowan Gillespie, John Behan, Michael Warren and many other artists in a catalogue available to see online. Viewing at Whyte’s today, tomorrow and Monday will be followed by a live auction at Freemason’s Hall on Molesworth St. in Dublin is from 6 pm on Monday.
Elizabeth Cope – Birds in our Saltee Islands 2003. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
