Anthony Murphy Pastels

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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