A couple of weeks ago, I called in to Gerard McGourty’s studio. I am always fascinated by this artist, and while I may not be an art historian, I have a reasonable handle on the movements in art. McGourty’s works always remind me of an artist in a serious art movement.
He has forged out a style, in my opinion unique, and he has made his canvas a wonderful exploratory machine, where he investigates different phenomena ,through the prism of history, childhood experience, the effects in society of current economics and managements, romance, travel, in fact the gamut of human experience, and the constant search.
What do I personally like about his work? His light opaque colours which he sometimes uses. They are brilliantly interwoven, and if you look close you can see a myriad of colours which he uses to achieve these effects. Often when artists use too pale colour for subtle effect the finished painting can look anaemic and uninteresting.
There is a certain virility in McGourty’s pales which observed within the whole painting can only be described as inspirational.
An writer on art from Paris, Charlotte de Brabander in an article wrote about his approach to painting: ”Gerard never plans anything, he has a fascination for colour and the merging of light and sound form the dimensions , overlapping until at last the painting is set free, fluid, unchained.”
Then there are Gerard’s characters or caricatures. Sometimes they remind me of Le Broquey’s tinker children from the 1930’s Ireland. They sometimes have the naivete of Daniel O Neill’s innocent big eyed females. They can also be the hardened characters, hustling their way through life.
Gerard can throw these characters together in different relationships, and from there we can get an insight in to his take on things. To quote from Charlotte de Brabander “Expressionist ? Modernist? None of the experts agree regarding his work, but they are unanimous in recognizing its strength. His work is widely collected in Europe and the USA, two over intellectualized places where ultimately it is through the senses that we need to feel the world.”
Gerard can work on a painting for years to achieve that balance, the correspondence between all the elements taking place in real time on the canvas, giving a multilayered effect, reminding me of Chagall, not bound by the parameters of perspective , or time or the college rule book, the finished work often looking three dimensional or cubist.
So you could ask what lies behind those balconies, or all that early memorabilia, or the woodland scenes, or the people in the street. What do I make of those kings and queens standing on the chequered floors, or is that a chess board?
To try to explain from the viewers point of view I will highlight a few paintings ,”Bluebirds over hayfields” (P7). Think of all the crass and sentimental paintings done in Ireland about hayfields, and compare them to the originality of this work. The telephone lines and the wired fence are there. Then you have the birds eye view with the slightly mythical birds. The haystacks almost float, yet the scene has a wonderful harmony of colour as man blends with nature .
“Beginning of Summer” (P12) is full of excitement and promise. The wild call of Summer is edging the classroom off the canvas, the magical bicycle finds its way on to the blackboard and becomes the real vehicle of learning.
‘Musicians Practice” (P6) is captured by the intimacy of the venue as the audience assemble around the performers. Claude Pissarro (grandson of Camille Pissarro) compared the violinist to a painting in the Musee D’Orsay.
“Lament” ( P13) The poignancy of “ Lament” the deaths of three young Irish doctors, one related to the artist is heart rending. Flowers are there and may represent those taken in the flower of youth. The mystical theme of the swans, imagery of transcendence and passageway to other worlds, there are the young women full of life and learning, yet they are about to pass over the threshold to an unknown destiny.
These paintings are for me great exemplars of Gerard’s work
Martin Davis - Sol Art Gallery, Dublin 2010
A limited-run catalogue New Paintings 2010 is available on sale (60 euro) in Millrace Gallery, Blackrock. Please order HERE