WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART MONDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 AT 6PM

104 72 Donald Teskey RHA (b.1956) THE DIVER II, 2021 oil on paper signed, titled and dated on reverse 30 by 41in. (76.2 by 104.1cm) Frame Size: 37.5 by 49in. (95.3 by 124.5cm) When Donald Teskey was first invited to paint at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle, North Mayo in the 1990s, the experience was decisive for him, and for the direction his work was taking. As a graduate of LSAD at the end of the 1970s, he was exceptional in that he was primarily a draughtsman, and one of great virtuosity. He found his subject matter in the edgy, marginal spaces of the urban environment and his images conveyed a slight tension, an unease. That became accentuated when, settled in Dublin, he addressed his environment, a patch of nature on the swooping valley of the Dodder at Milltown, and a series of allegorical figurative works on trapeze artists. When he turned to painting, he treated the fabric of the city as landscape, with canyon-like streets around the Guinness brewery and the stratified layers of rail lines, canals, roads and laneways cutting through monumental industrial structures. He has never lost a feeling for the spatial drama of the city, but when he connected with the elemental spectacle of the western seaboard, something clicked. He had found his landscape. Of course he has explored that landscape further, up and down the coast, and inland, but its essence is encapsulated in its simplest form: the mass of the Atlantic Ocean breaking against the rocky shore. The beauty of it is that this stark opposition of driven water and intractable rock is framed by a rhythmic patterning of time, tide and weather that is both repetitious and productive of endless variety. The artist has become attuned to the heightened moments when waves break against dark stone and vast bursts of water course through the intricate mazes of slippery rock created by the relentless tidal onslaught. He had embarked on a new body of work when lockdown intervened in 2020. Working close to home, back on the Dodder, seemed to sharpen his appetite for the West, and when he could return there, in 2021, he made paintings exceptional for their liveliness and vigour. The recipient of many honours and awards, Donald Teskey has worked and exhibited widely at home and abroad and his work is included in numerous collections, public and private. Aidan Dunne, September 2024 €20,000-€30,000 (£16,810-£25,210 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot72