WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 6 JUNE 2022 AT 6PM

106 77 Diarmuid Delargy (b.1958) TABLE SHARK AND CANDLE [FROM THE ART AND EXTINCTION SERIES], 2002 oil on canvas signed, titled, dated and with RHA exhibition label on reverse 24 by 36in. (61 by 91.4cm) Frame Dimensions: 30.5 by 42in. (77.5 by 106.7cm) Provenance: RHA, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 2004, catalogue no. 98 Working in painting, printmaking and sculpture, Belfast born artist Diarmuid Delargy studied at the College of Art and Design in the Ulster Polytechnic and later in the 1980s at the prestigious Slade School in London. Delargy has exhibited nationally and internationally since the 1980s; his breakthrough exhibition, titled ‘Directions Out’ at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin (1987), saw the artist reflect on ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Among his concerns in more recent years have been issues of the environment. In the summer of 2017 an exhibition titled ‘Here and Now’ - comprising oils and watercolours made over the previous decade - was presented at the Ballina Arts Centre County Mayo. The exhibition displayed several recurring themes based around the dominant motif of ‘Art and Extinction’ and included works from‘The Shark/Tope Series’, which Delargy described as ‘a visual conversation about the onslaught on the environment wrought by the relentless consumption of our era’. Delargy describes work from the Shark Series as characterised by - and somewhat associated with - his own thoughts about art and ‘deep time’, defined as the time scale of geologic events, which is vastly, almost unimaginably greater than the time scale of human lives and human plans. Delargy has commented, ”The nature of this work has been a series of ongoing oil sketches developed into bigger and more significant aspects of these studies in larger canvas and/or board, using oil as the main medium. To date this has taken on a motif, that of a tope or a shark, a homage to the European natura morta tradition with a twist on the Pieta. Reckoned to be one of the oldest creatures on the planet, a product of the ‘deep time’, sharks have reached the end of their evolution, which makes them perfect - nature has perfected them. For me, sharks are vehicles to express oneself, I’m attracted by the idea of trying to paint and draw perfection; conceptually it’s thought provoking - the imperfect responding to the perfect.” In 1999 Delargy was elected to membership of Aosdána and to the Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers Bankside London in 2005. Among some of his most celebrated works are a suite of twenty-four prints based on writings by Samuel Beckett, created with the Nobel Laureate’s written approval. He has also collaborated with Irish poet Ciaran Carson and Paul Muldoon on a handmade book in New York. €2,500-€3,500 (£2,140-£2,990 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot77