ANTHONY MURPHY RETROSPECTIVE
OF
DRAWINGS AND WORKS
MONDAY 17th NOVEMBRE 2008 TO
SATURDAY 22th NOVEMBER 2008
NICHOLAS BOWLBY FINE ART, 77, KENSINGTON CHURCH STREET W8 4BG GALLERY oPENING tIMES : 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. TELEPHONE : 07 831 255 691 E-mAIL : info@nicholasbowlby.co.uk www.nicholasbowlby.o.uk
ON
PAPER
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FOREWORD
In my early twenties I had turned my back on a career in the City of London to write poetry on the edge of the sea in one of the poorest parts of Connemara. So when my nephew, Anthony, told me in 1990 he was giving up the law to become a painter, I felt admiration tempered by alarm. Talent and will power he possessed in abundance together with style and charisma. At the age of fifteen he had won an Emmy Award for his starring role in the BBC production of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. An at twenty-four, having starred in the tabloids as the heroin-addicted hang-gliding husband of a Duke’s daughter, he rebelled against the rebel in himself, gave up drugs, obtained a divorce, and entered a law-firm. But I wondered how, in his mid-thirties, he could reinvent himself as a painter and survive with a new family in a grand old ruin of a house on top of a hill near the medieval city of Carcassonne with views of the Pyrenees. Now I see that Anthony’s painting embodies and transfigures the tension, pain and glory of his time, of his Irish, English and Jewish heritage, of the rebel within the lawyer, the addict within the survivor, the rootless visionary brought trough art and suffering to earth. POET
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1 Chignon pastel on paper, 31 cm x 48 cm
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2 La Toilette pastel on paper, 28 cm x 43 cm
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3 Main Street pastel on card, 58 cm x 40 cm
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4 Ballinashoe Fair pastel on card, 20 cm x 28 cm
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5 Yawn pastel on paper, 17 cm x 27 cm
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6 In the Atlas pastel on paper, 26 cm x 38 cm
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7 Road to Compostella pastel on paper, 49 cm x 40 cm
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8 Sean Sweeney’s Ahascragh pastel on card, 46 cm x 40 cm
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9 The Priest in the Pub pastel on card, 49 cm x 35 cm
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10 Notting Hill pastel on paper, 40 cm x 28 cm
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11 Brasserie Balzaar pastel on card, 49 cm x 36 cm
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12 Magnolia pastel on card, 54 cm x 36 cm
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13 The Harbour, Essaouira pastel on paper, 39 cm x 29 cm
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14 The Bean Shellers, Caunes-Minervois pastel on card, 49 cm x 37 cm
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15 Red Peppers pastel on card, 38 cm x 28 cm
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16 Willy Leahy’s Yard pastel on card, 63 cm x 48 cm
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17 Norfolk Coast pastel on card, 38 cm x 46 cm
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18 Tempus fugit pastel on card, 68 cm x 43 cm
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19 Leda Ă Rembours pastel on velvet, 36 cm x 52 cm
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20 Le RĂŞve pastel on card, 43 cm x 27 cm
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21 Les Chaises pastel on paper 32 cm x 48 cm 24
22 Sunday Morning, St Sulpice pastel on card, 64 cm x 49 cm
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23 The Chess player pastel on paper 32 cm x 48 cm 26
24 Mother & Child pastel on paper 25 cm x 33 cm 27
25 My sister asleep pastel on card, 49 cm x 35 cm
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26 The Chefs pastel on card, 48 cm x 31,5 cm
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LIST OF WORKS 1
Chignon
pastel on paper
31 cm x 48 cm
£ 2 200
2
La Toilette
pastel on paper
28 cm x 43 cm
£ 1 750
3
Main Street
pastel on card
58 cm x 40 cm
£ 250
4
Ballinashoe Fair
pastel on card
20 cm x 28 cm
£ 900
5
Yawn
pastel on paper
17 cm x 27 cm
£ 800
6
In the Atlas
pastel on paper
26 cm x 38 cm
£ 900
7
Road to Compostella
pastel on paper
49 cm x 40 cm
£ 2 500
8
Sean Sweeney’s ,Ahascragh
pastel on card
46 cm x 40 cm
£ 2 100
9
The Priest in the Pub
pastel on card
49 cm x 35 cm
£ 2 000
pastel on paper
40 cm x 28 cm
£ 1 800
11 Brasserie Balzaar
pastel on card
49 cm x 36 cm
£ 1 800
12 Magnolia
pastel on card
54 cm x 36 cm
£ 1 800
pastel on paper
39 cm x 29 cm
£ 1 300
14 The Bean Shellers, Caunes-Minervois
pastel on card
49 cm x 37 cm
£ 1 500
15 Red Peppers
pastel on card
38 cm x 28 cm
£ 1 850
16 Willy Leahy’s Yard
pastel on card
63 cm x 48 cm
£ 2 800
17 Norfolk Coast
pastel on card
38 cm x 46 cm
£ 1 700
18 Tempus Fugit
pastel on card
63 cm x 43 cm
£ 2 500
pastel on velvet
36 cm x 52 cm
£ 2 000
pastel on card
43 cm x 27 cm
£ 1 400
pastel on paper
32 cm x 48 cm
£ 2 200
pastel on card
64 cm x 49 cm
£ 2 600
23 The Chess Player
pastel on paper
32 cm x 48 cm
£ 2 500
24 Mother & Child
pastel on paper
25 cm x 33 cm
£ 1 400
25 My sister asleep
pastel on card
49 cm x 35 cm
£ 2 500
10 Notting Hill
13 The Harbour, Essaouira
19 Leda à Rembours 20 Le Rêve 21 Les Chaises 22 Sunday morning, St Sulpice
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26 The Chefs
pastel on card
48 cm x 31,5 cm
£ 2 500
27 Lady Ffrench
pastel on card
45 cm x 31 cm
£ 550
28 Mrs Neville-Rolfe
pastel on card
24,5 cm x 19 cm
£ 450
29 Canal Trees
pastel on card
43 cm x 27 cm
£ 650
30 Femme penchée
pastel on card
31 cm x 22 cm
£ 650
31 Café de la Paix, Carcassonne
pastel on card
43 cm x 27 cm
£ 750
32 Radishes
pastel on velvet
20 cm x 20 cm
£ 800
33 The Clay Pipe
pastel on paper
44 cm x 29 cm
£ 1 300
34 Setting Down
pastel on card
44 cm x 25 cm
£ 900
35 Rome Sky
pastel on paper
40 cm x 28 cm
£ 900
36 La Mairie
pastel on card
49 cm x 34 cm
£ 650
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Anthony Murphy Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1956. Lives and works near Carcassonne, Aude, since 1992.
2007 2006 2005 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1995 1993 1991
Ib Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland The Orangery, Holland Park, London Ib Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland The Orangery, Holland Park, London Galerie Aalders, Golfe de Saint-Tropez, France The Orangery, Holland Park, London Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, USA The Orangery, Holland Park, London Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, USA The Orangery, Holland Park, London Park Walk Gallery, Chelsea, London Park Walk Gallery, Chelsea, London Park Walk Gallery, Chelsea, London
1970/1975 1973
Westminster School, London Emmy award for best actor in a starring role, BBC, Television Academy Awards, Los Angeles 1975-1978 New College, Oxford, BA degree in Philosophy, Psychology and Physiology 1982 High Holborn, London, BA degree in Law 1984 Lincoln’s Inn, London, called to the English Bar 1985-1987 Temple, 2 King’s Bench Walk & 6 Pump Court 1988-1990 Lawfirm of Clifford Chance, Paris, France
Let grief be a fallen leaf This exhibition is about sex, announced the artist himself and there certainly is a trace of animal magnetism about the raw colours of his palette. But conversely, it also is an exhibition about subtlety, about a covert glance, a dappled shadow. There’s something almost feline about the many diverse lives lived by Murphy. This now internationally acclaimed artist was actually born in Buenos Aires in Argentina but is inherently connected to Ireland. Susan Gorman, Irish Independant - September 2007 « Murphy’s powerful use of colour and shape meets to create landscapes that are lyrically composed : paths twist, trees dance and hills roll out to the horizon to a tune that is almost audible. Murphy chooses to reach beyond the superficially visible to delve into the mythic reaches, into the realm of nyad and dryad.. » Susan Conley, Irish Times, September, 2005 « The British have drawn and painted in France since the eighteenth century. But France is so varied that there is always something new to explore, something different to express. Murphy has both the intellectual astringency and the technical gift to do so. » Francis Russell, Old Masters, Director Christie’s,
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