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Patsy Dan Rodgers (b.1945)
GOING TOWARDS ERRIGAL MOUNTAIN, DONEGAL
oil on board
signed lower right; with location lower left; signed again [King of Tory] and inscribed with title on reverse
16 x 20in. (40.64 x 50.80cm)
Patsy Dan Rodgers, King of Tory, was one of the original members of the Tory Island Primitive School of Art, whose
patron was the renowned artist Derek Hill. Patsy Dan, along with fellow artists, Anton Meenan, James Dixon and his
brother, Ruarí Rodgers first brought their art from the isolated Gaeltacht area that is Tory Island into the public mainland
domain when they held their inaugural collective exhibition at the New Gallery, Belfast in 1968. During these formative
years, Rodgers was an instrumental campaigner against Government plans to relocate the inhabitants of Tory to the
Donegal mainland following the 1974 storms which left those on Tory Island cut off for nearly two months. Owing to
this, as well as his artistic and cultural contributions to the island, he has since been granted the title of King of Tory. In
October 2003 the University of Ulster Art Gallery, Belfast paid homage to the naive style of this collective of artists in
a group exhibition of Tory Islander art. Patsy Dan’s continues to produce to date and has had recent exhibitions in the
Cristeph Gallery, Letterkenny, County Donegal.
€500-€700 (£360-£500 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 71Christmas Auction Ar t & Collectibles 8 December 2015