PRESS RELEASE: 16 July 2010
Press & Communications Office
press@ngi.ie
Minister for Culture unveils portrait of
Brian Friel at National Gallery.
A portrait of Brian Friel, renowned playwright and author, was unveiled today
(Friday 16 July) in the National Gallery of Ireland by Mary Hanafin,
T.D., Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.
The portrait, by Mick
O’Dea RHA, was commissioned in 2009 by the Gallery’s Board of Governors and
Guardians on the occasion of the playwright’s 80th birthday as part
of the contemporary portrait series.
Congratulating artist
Mick O’Dea for his portraiture, Minister Mary Hanafin
said: “Mick O’Dea has produced a thoughtful and sensitive portrait of Brian Friel, who is one of Ireland’s most prominent
playwrights, theatre directors and authors. Brian has made an enormous
contribution to the cultural life of the nation and his influence on current
and the new generation of Irish writers is profound. His work has greatly
enhanced the reputation of Ireland
and Irish theatre. O’Dea’s portrait will now add to the wonderful collection at
the National Gallery as it records one of our historic figures and major living
playwrights.”
Friel was born in Omagh, County
Tyrone. In 1962, he published
his first collection, The Saucer of Larks,
and saw his first major theatrical work The
Enemy Within produced to critical acclaim. This paved the way for Philadelphia Here I Come!, which was staged as part of the
Dublin Theatre Festival in 1964 and firmly established Friel’s
reputation. He was a founder member in 1980 of Field Day, the theatre company
that staged his new play Translations.
That work and his more recent Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) have become classics of Irish theatre. Friel has penned more than twenty plays in total, including
adaptations of work by such writers as Turgenev and Chekhov, demonstrating
consistently both formal innovation and an extraordinary skill in the writing
of dialogue.
Clare-born artist, Mick
O’Dea has won several awards and has contributed to
many exhibitions in Ireland
and overseas. In 1996 he was elected both a Royal Hibernian Academician and a
member of Aosdána.
In this three-quarter
length portrait the artist depicts Friel in
contemplative pose and focuses on the playwright’s characteristic mannerism in
bringing his fingertips together to touch his face, a gesture which enhances
the cerebral quality of the portrait.
Raymond Keaveney, Director of the National Gallery said: “We are
delighted and honoured to include this portrait of
Brian Friel as part of the growing National Portrait
Collection. One of the ways in which the National Gallery remains relevant to
contemporary society and the contemporary arts is by engaging with the art of
portraiture. It is important to keep the tradition of portraiture alive whilst
at the same time celebrating the great portraits of the past in the work of
artists like William Orpen, whose portrait of John
McCormack has proved very popular with the public since it was acquired for the
collection last year.”
Portrait of Brian Friel (1929-), Playwright and
Author,
by Mick O’Dea RHA, will be on public view in the Millennium Wing, from Saturday,
17 July 2010.
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Note to
Editors:
see biographical notes and supplementary information.
Contact: Valerie
Keogh / Emma Pearson
Press & Communications
Office
National Gallery of Ireland
Telephone (01) 663 3598/ 663
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Hours:
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is free to the permanent collection. www.nationalgallery.ie
Brian Friel (b.1929)
Friel was
born in Omagh, County
Tyrone, but moved to Derry
at the age of ten. Having attended St Patrick’s College, Maynooth
and St Joseph’s Training
College, Belfast, he worked as a primary school
teacher until 1960, at the same time publishing short stories in various
periodicals, including the New Yorker.
In 1962, he published his first collection, The
Saucer of Larks, and saw his first major theatrical work The Enemy Within produced to critical
acclaim. This paved the way for Philadelphia Here I Come!, which was staged as part of the
Dublin Theatre Festival in 1964 and firmly established Friel’s
reputation. Two years later, Friel published his
second collection of short stories, The
Gold in the Sea. From Co. Donegal, to which he moved in 1967, he kept an
interested eye on political developments in Northern Ireland, producing a
number of works, including The Freedom of
the City, inspired by events there. He was a founder member in 1980of Field
Day, the theatre company that staged his new play Translations. That work and his more recent Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) have become
classics of Irish theatre. Friel has penned more than
twenty plays in total, including adaptations of work by such writers as
Turgenev and Chekhov, demonstrating consistently both formal innovation and an
extraordinary skill in the writing of dialogue.
Mick O’Dea (b.1958)
Born in Ennis, County Clare,
Mick O’Dea is a portrait painter based in Dublin.
He studied at the National College of Art and Design, the University
of Massachusetts, and more recently at
the Winchester School of Art in Barcelona and Winchester, by which he
was awarded an MA in European Fine Art in 1997. He has taught and lectured
throughout Ireland and in the United States, and has won numerous awards,
including the Keating McLoughlin Medal at the RHA in
1993, the Taylor de Vere Award for a work of
Distinction in any medium at the RHA two years later, and several at the Arnotts National Portrait Awards Exhibitions. He was
elected both a Royal Hibernian Academician and a member of Aosdána
in 1996. O’Dea has participated in several residencies in Ireland, and has contributed to exhibitions and
symposia in Ireland, Latvia, the United
Kingdom, Spain
and the United States.
In 2005, he held a Salon in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.
Examples of his work are to be found in the permanent collections of many
public and private institutions.
Portrait
of Brian Friel (1929-), Playwright and Author (2009)
Oil on canvas, 60.5
x 50.5cm
Though this
portrait of Brian Friel is tighter in finish and more
compact in composition than many of O’Dea’s works, the vigorous use of paint,
particularly evident in the face, is typical. The way in which the flesh tones,
which correspond approximately to the natural contours of the face, have been
built up in layers, is also characteristic of the artist’s portraiture. The
contemplative pose, meanwhile, seems appropriate for a sitter known for his
deliberate observations. The manner in which the sitter’s fingertips touch in
front of his face lends intensity to the image without detracting from the
likeness. Indeed, this small gesture, focussing
attention on Friel’s head, might be said to enhance
the cerebral quality of the portrait.
National Portrait Collection
The
creation of a National Portrait Collection was first suggested as early as
1872, a short number of years after the opening of the National Gallery of
Ireland. The Gallery’s second Director, Henry Doyle (1869-92), envisaged a
collection modelled on the National Portrait Gallery
in London, but his application for funding was
refused by the Treasury on the grounds that in the London gallery ‘eminent Irishmen are
represented indiscriminately with Englishmen and Scotchmen [sic]’.
Displaying
admirable ambition and sensitivity to the social and political realities in Ireland,
however, Doyle persevered and, without any exchequer support, opened in March
1875 a room dedicated to portraiture. Later, in 1884, this display was
expanded to become the Historical and Portrait Gallery. Though the permanent
display today consists of paintings and sculptures, the profile of the
collection has altered little since its inception. The description of the
Portrait Gallery in 1885 as a display of ‘eminent Irishmen and Irish women…
also of statesmen and others who were politically or socially connected with
Ireland, or whose lives serve in any way to illustrate her history or throw
light on her social or literary or artistic records’ still stands. Indeed, the
selection on display today, augmented by the addition of portraits of figures
representing popular culture and sport, was made with Doyle’s early aspirations
very much in mind.
The
collection has been enhanced in recent years by the inclusion of works
commissioned as part of the Irish Life & Permanent Portrait Series. To
date, six portraits by leading Irish artists have been added to the
collection. They are: Mark Shields, Portrait of Mary and Nicholas
Robinson, James Hanley, Portrait of Ronnie Delaney, John Kindness, Portrait of
Gay Byrne, Tom Ryan, Portrait of TK Whitaker, Louis le Brocquy,
Image of Bono, and more recently, Maeve McCarthy, Portrait of Maeve Binchy.
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