WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 29 NOVEMBER 2021 AT 6PM

74 54 Tony O’Malley HRHA (1913-2003) PAINTING, ST. LUCIA, WEST INDIES, 1992 oil on board signed with initials lower left; signed, titled, dated and numbered [2150] on reverse 48 by 23.50in. (121.9 by 59.7cm) Frame Dimensions: 54 by 29.5in. (137.2 by 74.9cm) Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by the present owner Until the late 1950s Tony O’Malley was a part-time artist, working from 1934-1958 with the Munster and Leinster Bank. In 1960 he moved to Cornwall, to the artist colony in St Ives and settled there for nearly thirty years. An injection of colour entered his oeuvre after his marriage to fellow artist Jane Harris in 1973. This led to winters in the Bahamas, where he began painting outdoors on canvas. In 1977 they bought a cottage at Physicanstown in Co. Kilkenny, which became their permanent home in 1990. The first exhibition of O’Malley’s work at the Irish Museum of Modern Art took place in 1992 and in 1993 he was elected Saoi of Aosdána. Painting St Lucia West Indies, here, and La Geria, Lanzarote (Triptych), lot 55, were both executed in the important and prolific decade in O’Malley’s career that was the 1990s. While both titles indicate where the works were executed, they only hint at the possibilities of their subjects: landscape, light, reflections, the natural world and/or all of these things at once. Their boards are characteristically marked with a variety of textures, incisions and insertions giving them a delightfully tactile quality. They are alive with movement brought about through expert flicks of colour and bold dashes of paint in bright and vibrant colours one would associate with warmer climes. Painting. St Lucia, West Indies was purchased directly from the artist by the present owner from his home studio in Kilkenny, a provenance that would be attractive to many collectors of his work. Adelle Hughes, November 2021 €20,000-€30,000 (£16,950-£25,420 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot54