Hughie O’Donoghue Scorched Earth
Hughie O’Donoghue Scorched Earth
Hughie O’Donoghue Scorched Earth 15 March – 14 April 2018
Marlborough Fine Art 6 Albemarle Street London W1S 4BY +44 (0)20 7629 5161 mfa@marlboroughfineart.com www.marlboroughlondon.com
Introduction By Martin Gayford On or about Monday, August 13th, 1888, Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo. In this he explained that his friend Paul-Eugène Milliet, a second lieutenant in the Zouave regiment, would be bringing a roll of 36 new paintings to Paris. Van Gogh immediately went on to add that he was “desperately dissatisfied” with many of these (which included some of the best-known images in the history of art), but he was sending them anyway. They might give Theo “a vague idea of some really fine subjects in the countryside” around Arles...
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Among the ones he briefly described was
The title of O’Donoghue’s exhibition is
“a quick sketch I made of myself laden with boxes,
“Scorched Earth” which, he points out, usually
sticks, a canvas, on the sunny Tarascon road”.
alludes to the military strategy of destroying
This picture, later entitled The Painter on the Road
everything of use to the enemy. The ferocity of the
to Tarascon was made at the height of the torrid
temperature in Arles at high summer, of course is
Provençal summer. It showed Vincent paused for
real not metaphorical, as O’Donoghue himself has
a moment on the route which led past his studio
experienced when working there. But it is the fiery
in the Yellow House, and out of town. He was
furnace of Van Gogh’s creativity that he really has
carrying his backpack, and grasped another
in mind: the way that the Dutchman, alone, isolated
bag and a portfolio.
and almost completely unknown, produced a stream
of masterpieces that transformed our sense of what
This little canvas, now lost for over 70 years,
has haunted the imaginations of later artists.
a painting could be. Or as O’Donoghue describes it,
In 1957 Francis Bacon executed a series of pictures
“the intensity and heat of Van Gogh’s vision
echoing and reimagining The Painter on the Road
as realised in the last two years of his life”.
to Tarascon. Hughie O’Donoghue has also returned
to the lost Van Gogh at intervals, making three large
great artist”, he continues, “What he accomplished
works related to it a decade ago, and now a
was a kind of two year revolution in art, carried out
sequence of large new paintings in this exhibition,
in some remote place in the south of France. It’s so
including Lavender Field, Hammering the Earth,
improbable. I suppose that’s why I return to him,
The Full Heat of the Sun and Revolution Road.
it’s so life-enhancing that someone can do that”.
These depict a landscape under intense
“That for me is why Van Gogh was such a
O’Donoghue’s representations of Van Gogh
heat, some like Crows Above a Grain Field IV
striding out in Lavender Field - and also seen close
burn with orange-red flame.
up in a series of closely-cropped heads - are not
intended as literal likenesses. A 21st century portrait
They also conflate two points in Van Gogh’s
“What he (Van Gogh) accomplished was a kind of two year revolution in art, carried out in some remote place in the south of France. It’s so improbable. I suppose that’s why I return to him, it’s so life-enhancing that someone can do that”.
brief life. Visually, O’Donoghue connects the fields
of Van Gogh is a problematic notion, since we only
of grain beside the path outside Arles with those
see Vincent as filtered through his own sensibility
ones of a later harvest, in July 1890 at Auvers to
and that of other painters including Gauguin and
the north of France over which Van Gogh painted
Toulouse Lautrec. There are, presumably through
flocks of ominous crows. It was there, amongst
Van Gogh’s own choice, no photographic portraits
the ripe corn, that Vincent shot himself.
of Van Gogh as an adult. He loved paint and hated the camera.
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“From the conceptual stand-point painting is often attacked as just rhetoric, a series of skills, going through the motions. But real painting is never about that. It’s always about what the American visionary artist Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917) described. He said it was like an inch worm on the edge of a leaf. Feeling your way forward”.
In any case O’Donoghue wasn’t trying for that
The “lone striding figure” blends with many
kind of verisimilitude. “I’ve had some extraordinary
other such travellers: some forebears of the painter’s,
likenesses that I’ve had to get rid of, because they
others images he has found. Among these layers of
weren’t interesting as paintings. What I’m trying
association are the family narratives, his grandfather,
to do is make a painting of Van Gogh”. That is an
leaving Kerry for England in 1911 and his father’s
apt tribute to the Dutchman, who had as great
journeys during the Second World War in France
a sense of the possibilities of paint as anyone in
and Italy. Other soldiers in images O’Donoghue
art history - and, furthermore, of the mutability
has found, include a French Poilu - or infantryman
of human appearance.
- on the march in 1914.
The same sitter, Van Gogh wrote to his sister,
For O’Donoghue the image of the painter on
can serve as the subject for very different portraits.
the road “ties in with other themes that have evolved
O’Donoghue’s intimate evocations of Vincent’s face
in my work, particularly the idea of the individual
are informed by certain self portraits - the two with
journey that everybody has to make. Van Gogh
bandaged ear, for example, from January 1889
is an emblematic figure. He’s now become a sort
and the marvellous one in Boston, dedicated to
of latter-day saint, an exemplar”. Vincent has,
Paul Gauguin. The latter, by the way has had an
in a secular sense, become the patron saint of
effect on the series, since it was Gauguin who
painters. He was the only great predecessor Picasso
bought a length of jute cloth shortly after he
could not imagine in a Rolls Royce, the Spaniard’s
arrived in Arles on which he and Vincent worked.
own test of incorruptibility. He had, as O’Donoghue
This in turn prompted O’Donoghue to use tarpaulin
says, “This willingness just to career on”.
as a support for the large pictures in this series.
is essentially a venture into the unknown. “From the
In a way, for O’Donoghue Van Gogh is
Painting itself, O’Donoghue believes,
everyman. “The lone striding figure on the road
conceptual stand-point it is often attacked as just
is symbolic of the individual journey”. Hammering
rhetoric, a series of skills, going through the motions.
the Earth does not depict Van Gogh at all, but
But real painting is never about that. It’s always about
O’Donoghue’s son - who also happens to be called
what the American visionary artist Albert Pinkham
Vincent - wearing his father’s suit and carrying his
Ryder (1847-1917) described. He said it was like
great-grandfather’s case, while standing on the
an inch worm on the edge of a leaf. Feeling your
road outside O’Donoghue’s studio in County Mayo,
way forward”.
Ireland. He feels this subject therefore has “an element of a Victorian tableau vivant in which an event is reconstructed”. 10
“He (Van Gogh) painted without fear. The conceptual context in which I grew up has killed painting. You can’t make a conceptual painting, it’s a contradiction. You have ideas, but ultimately you have to submit yourself to the maelstrom of trying to make a painting.”
O’Donoghue sees Van Gogh as a model for
There is a sense of lurking threat about The
those searching for a way to escape the postmodern
Painter on the Road to Tarascon which, O’Donoghue
attitude to art-making, obsessed by appropriation
connects with Van Gogh’s approaching mental
and irony. “Van Gogh’s journey, which is striving for
breakdown. “In the paintings of the figure on the
some sort of truth, is the absolute opposite of irony”.
road”, O’Donoghue comments, “there is a fear behind
As a young artist, O’Donoghue found Van Gogh
things, but he’s trying to stare down his own fear”.
a vital role-model. “I grew up at a time when irony
Vincent’s black shadow capering on the path beside
was the only show in town. I did an MA at Goldsmith’s
him has an ominous vitality of its own (a detail that
in 1980, at that time the only kind of art you were
Francis Bacon, for whom shadows stood for mortality
supposed to make was predicated on irony. I just
and fate, fixed upon).
didn’t believe that”.
the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Magdeburg in 1912.
Years before, he had encountered the
Van Gogh “quick sketch” was purchased by
Dutch painter’s art in his home town as a teenager
During the Second World War it was stored in a salt
in Manchester. “The Manchester Art Gallery
mine, deep underground. The painting was probably
happened to have on loan one of the first pictures
destroyed when a fire broke out there in April 1945.
he made in Arles. I used to go and look at this
Tantalisingly, though, there exists a small possibility
canvas of a tree in blossom in the snow. That was
it was looted and still exists. In any case this vanished
revelatory”. When he was 20, for the first time
masterpiece continues to cast an extraordinary
O’Donoghue made his own pilgrimage in Vincent’s
shadow over contemporary painters - as this
footsteps to Arles in 1973. Since then Van Gogh has
exhibition so powerfully demonstrates.
become “a touchstone, a real painter, with a sense of the material: the mud that is paint”.
“He painted without fear. The conceptual
Martin Gayford is an art critic and expert on the life of Vincent van Gogh.
context in which I grew up has killed painting. You can’t make a conceptual painting, it’s a contradiction. You have ideas, but ultimately you have to submit yourself to the maelstrom of trying to make a painting. You have to find what the triggers are to drag something of interest out of yourself. You have to get into an area where you don’t know what you are doing or you won’t do anything interesting”. 11
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List of Works
Hammering the Earth, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid and leaf metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 243 x 368 cm Revolution Road, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 185 x 240 cm
The Painter Van Gogh III, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm The Painter Van Gogh IV, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm The Painter Van Gogh V, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
Lavender Field, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm
The Painter Van Gogh VI, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Full Heat of the Sun, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm
The Painter Van Gogh VII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh I, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh VIII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh II, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh IX, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
When the Last Fires Have Burned Out, 2017-18 oil on linen canvas 125 x 158 cm Crows Above a Grainfield I, Aloft, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm Crows Above a Grainfield II, Red Light, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm Crows Above a Grainfield III, Turbulent Indigo, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm Crows Above a Grainfield IV, Blue Remembered, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm
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Hammering the Earth, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid and leaf metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 243 x 368 cm
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Revolution Road, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 185 x 240 cm
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Lavender Field, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm
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The Full Heat of the Sun, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm
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The Painter Van Gogh I, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
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The Painter Van Gogh II, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh III, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
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The Painter Van Gogh IV, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
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The Painter Van Gogh V, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh VI, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
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The Painter Van Gogh VII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
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The Painter Van Gogh VIII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
The Painter Van Gogh IX, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm
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When the Last Fires Have Burned Out, 2017-18 oil on linen canvas 125 x 158 cm
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Crows Above a Grainfield I, Aloft, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm
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Crows Above a Grainfield II, Red Light, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm
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Crows Above a Grainfield III, Turbulent Indigo, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm
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Crows Above a Grainfield IV, Blue Remembered, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm 33
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Hughie O’Donoghue (b. 1953) BIOGRAPHY
2008
Lost Histories; Imagined Realities, Gemeentemuseum
Den Haag, Netherlands
Born in Manchester, England
Parables, Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris
The Geometry of Paths, James Hyman Gallery, London
1981-82
Studied at Goldsmiths College, London
2007
Last Poems, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
1984-86
Residency at The National Gallery, London
2006
Souvenir of St. Valery, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2000
Residency at St John’s College, Oxford
The Deep, Galway Arts Festival 2006, Fairgreen Gallery,
2009
Elected Royal Academician
Galway City and Aras Enna Arts Centre, Inis Oirr.
2013
Creates new stained glass in Westminster Abbey for the 60th
2005
Parable of the Prodigal Son, Fenton Gallery, Cork
Anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen
Venice Project: The Drunkenness of Noah, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2018
Commissioned by St Paul’s Cathedral, painting of St Martin
2004
Fiume, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
in the Knights’ Chapel
Crucifixions, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland, off site project
Lives and works in London and Ireland
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
at Duiske Abbey Graiguenamanagh and Callan Friary, Callan
2003
Painting Caserta Red, Imperial War Museum, London; Imperial
War Museum North, Manchester
Postcard from Milan and other prints, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2002
Course of the Diver, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Course of the Diver, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich
2017
The Tempest: Ireland. Memory. Identity, Belfast International
2001-03
Richer Dust, Carborundum prints and related Paintings,
Arts Festival, Belfast
the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Djanolgly Art Gallery, University
2016
One Hundred Years and Four Quarters, Galway International
of Nottingham; Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath;
Arts Festival, Galway
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
The Red Earth, Visual Carlow, Carlow
2001
Naming the Fields, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Seven Halts on the Somme, Leighton House, London
Navigation, Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar
2015
Hughie O’Donoghue, Permanent Green, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2000
Ancient Music, Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt
2014
Seven Halts on The Somme, Verey Gallery, Eton College, Berkshire
Smoke Signals, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
The Measure of all Things, The Chapter House, Westminster Abbey, London
1999
Niobe’s Children, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich
2013
Hughie O’Donoghue, A Need for Gardens, Marlborough Fine Art, London;
Episodes from the Passion, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin
The Hunt Museum, Limerick
Corp, Paintings and Drawings of the Human Body 1984-1998
Gort Rua, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin
Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
2012
A Moment’s Liberty, Marlborough Fine Art, London
1998 - 99
Corp, Paintings and Drawings of the Human Body 1984- 1998
Artists’ Laboratory 05: Hughie O’Donoghue, RA, Painting / Memory,
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Weston Rooms, Royal Academy, London
Crossing the Rapido: An Italian Campaign 9 October 1943-29 April 1998
Hughie O’Donoghue, Vivid Field, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2011
Road, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague
1997
Via Crucis, Haus der Kunst, Munich
Excavations, Trinity Hall, Cambridge
A Line of Retreat, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Absolut Festival Gallery, Galway
2010
Last Days on the Islands, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin
2009
The Journey, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
Hughie O’Donoghue, Recent Paintings and Selected works from the
American Ireland Fund Donation, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Spirit of the Figure, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury Christ Church
University, Kent
Pharos, James Hyman Gallery, London 37
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
LITERATURE
2017
John McAuliffe, Permanent Green, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 2015 Colin Wiggins, Hughie O’Donoghue- a Moment’s Liberty, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 2012 PHAROS, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2009 Tanja Pirsig-Marshall, Hughie O’Donoghue: The Journey, Leeds Museums & Galleries, Leeds, 2009 Sean Kissane, Hughie O’Donoghue: Recent Paintings and Selected Works, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2009 James Hyman, Hughie O’Donoghue: Lost Histories, Imagined Realities, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, 2008 James Hamilton, Hughie O’Donoghue: Painting, memory, myth, Merrell Publishers, London, 2003
RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2016
A Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2015
A Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London
RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2014
The Power of the Sea, Royal West of England, Academy, Bristol
2013 Shaping Identities: Yesterday and Today/Together, Ireland and Europe Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe 2012 The Mechanical Hand, Kings Place Gallery, London Borrowed Memories, Luan Gallery, Athlone 2011
Afterlife, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
2010 RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London RHA Summer Exhibition, Dublin Retrospective, Visual Carlow, Carlow 2008
Night, A Time Between, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2007-08
I’m Always Touched by your Presence, Dear – New Acquisitions,
2007
Then and Now, James Hyman Gallery, London
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 2006 Drawing Inspiration, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal Bodies of Water, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; Southampton City Art Gallery 2005
Ljubljana International Graphic Biennale representing Great Britain. Eye of the Storm, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2004
Views from an Island, Contemporary Irish Art from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Millennium Museum, Beijing; Shanghai Art Gallery
2003 Past Memory/Present Feeling, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts Contemporary Prints, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford The Journey, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester 2000 Geschichte und Erinnerung Kunst der Gegenwart (History and Memory in Contemporary Art), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt Five Centuries of Genius, European Master Printmaking, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide An Artist’s Century, Masterworks and Self Portraits of 20th Century Irish Artists, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin The Times of Our Lives: Endings, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester 1999
Graphic! British Prints Now, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
1997-99 Last Dreams of the Millennium: The Re-emergence of British Romantic Painting, University Art Gallery, California State University; Main Art Gallery, California State University, Fullerton; University of Hawaii 1997-98 When Time Began to Rant and Rave: Figurative Painting from 20th Century Ireland, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; University of California Art Museum, Berkeley; Grey Art Gallery & Study Centre, New York; University of Michigan Museum of Art Andata e Ritorno: British Artists in Italy 1980-96, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
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PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Museum of Art Bath: Victoria Art Gallery Belfast: Ulster Museum Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Bradford: Cartwright Hall Art Gallery Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum Cork: Crawford Art Gallery Cork: National University of Ireland Den Haag: Gemeentemuseum Dublin: Chester Beatty Library Dublin: Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art Dublin: The Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin: Trinity College Galway: National University of Ireland University of Glasgow: Hunterian Art Gallery Huddersfield Art Gallery Hull: Ferens Art Gallery Limerick: Hunt Museum London: British Museum London: The Imperial War Museum London: The National Gallery London: Arts Council of Great Britain University of Manchester: Whitworth Art Gallery Maynooth: National University of Ireland Mayo General Hospital Middlesbrough: Cleveland County Museums New Haven: Yale Center for British Art University of Nottingham: Djanogly Art Gallery Oxford: Ashmolean Museum University of Oxford: St John’s College
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London Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd 6 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4BY Telephone: +44 (0)20 7629 5161 Telefax: +44 (0)20 7629 6338 mfa@marlboroughfineart.com www.marlboroughlondon.com
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Barcelona Marlborough Barcelona Enric Granados, 68 08008 Barcelona. Telephone: +34 93 467 4454 Telefax: +34 93 467 4451 infobarcelona@galeriamarlborough.com www.galeriamarlborough.com
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Text: Martin Gayford Martin Gayford is an art critic and expert on the life of Vincent van Gogh Photography: Anthony Hobbs Design: Stocks Taylor Benson Print: Impress Print Services ISBN 978-1-909707-47-4 Catalogue No. 775 Š 2018 Marlborough