WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 31 MAY 2021 AT 6PM

118 91 Brian Bourke HRHA (b.1936) WOMEN GIVING BIRTH TO MEN, 2001-2003 (SET OF FORTY) pastel; (40) 37.50 by 24.50in. (95.3 by 62.2cm) Frame Dimensions: Overall very good condition. Provenance: Collection of George and Maura McClelland Exhibited: ‘Women Giving Birth to Men’, Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 2003; ’Women Giving Birth to Men’, Mermaid Gallery, County Wicklow Arts Centre, 18 July to 30 August 2005 Literature: Brian Bourke, Five Decades, 1960s-2000s, The Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2010, pps.79-83 (illustrated) Bourke has repeatedly turned to women as subjects for his paintings and something about the female body certainly lends itself to the sinuous and expressively seductive shapes that we associate with this artist’s work. However, while most of his portraits are based on specific women, the important series of paintings calledWomen Giving Birth to Men depicts women in a more generic way. Because of the ease that comes from Bourke’s natural technical virtuosity, he tries to avoid complacency. His brings the female figure into a territory devoid of sentimentality, comfort and prettiness. In this series of paintings he deliberately challenges the viewer to make sense of the subject. The women are in pairs or in larger groups and are interacting so casually that, rather than giving birth, they seem more like women out on a shopping spree. There certainly is a very ‘clubby’ feel to their interaction. As for giving birth, there is certainly no evidence of any pain on the part of these women, but rather on the howling and terrified faces of the men. It is obvious from the way Bourke handles the subject (nothing literal about the way he paints it) that birth really isn’t the subject at all. More likely, he’s dealing with the relationship between men and women or, more particularly, between himself and women. If this is the case, he seems to feel more than a little isolated and hard done by. In this series the theme of self-mockery and dislocation which threads itself in and out of Bourke’s work over the years has emerged full-blown. These pastels have tremendous visual presence, full of the energy and flamboyance that makes Bourke’s work so appealing and immediately recognisable. He pushes colour to its limits with wild pulsating backgrounds and exaggerated intensity; his subjects are reshaped to the rhythms of his sinuous line. Anyone looking at these paintings cannot fail to recognise the unique and identifiable imprint of the artist. Dr. Frances Ruane HRHA April 2017 €10,000-€15,000 (£8,700-£13,040 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot91