IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 2 OCTOBER 2023 AT 6PM

76 60 Tony O’Malley HRHA (1913-2003) SPRING ROOKS, 1986 oil on board signed and dated [5/86] lower left; signed, titled, dated and with alternate titles [Spring with Black of Crow/Tree Music] on reverse 48 by 36in. (121.9 by 91.4cm) Frame Size: 55.5 by 43.5in. (141 by 110.5cm) Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist, 1990; Private collection Spring Rooks, 1986 is a celebration of nature and the seasons. Various inscriptions on the reverse of the board provide some insight into the painting’s themes and inspiration. ”In memory of Boris Pasternak’’ is written upper right on the reverse above a numbered listing: 1 Spring Rooks / 2 Spring with Black of Crow / 3 Tree Music. Pasternak, the Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator - best known as the author of Doctor Zhivago (1957) - was similarly concerned with the natural world and with man’s place within it. His poetry draws parallels with O’Malley’s oeuvre and both men, through their respective disciplines, capture nature with an immediacy that defined both their styles. February by Boris Pasternak Translated by Alex Miller February. Get ink, shed tears. Write of it, sob your heart out, sing, While torrential slush that roars Burns in the blackness of the spring. Go hire a buggy. For six grivnas, Race through the noise of bells and wheels To where the ink and all you grieving Are muffled when the rainshower falls. To where, like pears burnt black as charcoal, A myriad of rooks, plucked from the trees, Fall down into the puddles, hurl Dry sadness deep into the eyes. Below, the wet black earth shows through, With sudden cries the wind is pitted, The more haphazard, the more true The poetry that sobs its heart out. In Spring Rooks the viewer is immersed into a dizzying, frenetic depiction of the springtime. The coolness of the previous months can still be felt through the ice blues, mauves and dots of whites but here the movement of the black rooks cuts through the composition breaking up the colours and sending plumes of yellow, pink, red, green and turquoise flying across the board. There is a typically tribal quality to the patterning and a rhythmic musicality to its placement. The board is also incised and punctured to add further texture and interest to the painting. Spring Rooks was purchased in 1990 by the present owner. It was bought from the artist at his home and studio, which he shared with his late wife, the artist Jane Harris in Physicianstown, Co Kilkenny. Adelle Hughes, September 2023 €25,000-€35,000 (£21,370-£29,910 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot60