Important Irish Art 30 November 2015

Tony O’Malley HRHA (1913-2003)

HARVEST LIGHT, 1991

oil on board

signed with initials and dated [4/91] lower left; inscribed on Taylor Galleries [Dublin] label on reverse

49_ x 37in. (125.73 x 93.98cm)

Taylor Galleries, Dublin;Where purchased by James O’Driscoll SC

‘An Irish Vision: Tony O’Malley’, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, April 8 to July 9 2000, p. 39 of the catalogue

(illustrated)

Ed. Lynch, Brian, Tony O’Malley, Scolar Press in Association with the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, 1996, p. 305 (full page

illustration)

Harvest Light is a relatively late work of Tony O’Malley, painted the year after he returned to live permanently in his

native Callan, after many years in Cornwall. The bright warm colours of the work are a response to the artist’s frequent

visits to the Bahamas where he stayed every winter from 1974 to the late 1980s. The intense light of the Caribbean had a

profound effect on O’Malley’s subsequent work. Although as Aidan Dunne has noted, it added to his already established

vocabulary of form rather than transforming his approach. He had to incorporate new colours such as ‘yellows and

pinks’, which the artist admitted, were ‘Not the colours that I liked actually, but they did come in - demanded to be

done.’ O’Malley’s painting makes a profound use of his immediate physical surroundings such as the studio or the

landscape. Equally it references the artist’s memories of the myriad of visual sensations that he experiences over time.

Harvest Light is an important example of this distinctive use of paint. Set against a pale light-filled ground, dynamic

shapes of strong yellows, oranges and pinks create the sensation of a sun-filled space. The title adds to this sensation.

It is typical of O’Malley’s preference for works that evoke particular times of the year, or even times of the day. The

surface of the painting is scored and marked in a variety of rhythmic lines and strokes of brightly coloured paint. These

suggest ripened corn, summer flowers and exotic birds and insects resting half hidden in the lushness of long grass.

Some of these marks appear like ancient script or a forgotten language and even take on a musical aspect. O’Malley

was a passionate accordion player and lover of music. Through such details Harvest Light evokes not only the physical

sensation of late summer but the sounds of harvest time. Despite its apparent abstract appearance the painting is

grounded in real experience and ultimately in the Irish countryside at its most vibrant. Dr. Róisín KennedyNovember

2015Footnotes:1. Tony O’Malley, quoted in ed. Brian Lynch, Tony O’Malley, Scolar Press, 1996, p.264.

€20000-€30000 (£14400-£21600 approx.)

IMPORTANT IRISH ART · 30 November 2015