Hughie O'Donoghue - Scorched Earth

Hughie O’Donoghue Scorched Earth

Hughie O’Donoghue Scorched Earth

Hughie O’Donoghue Scorched Earth 15 March – 14 April 2018

Marlborough Fine Art 6 Albemarle Street London W1S 4BY +44 (0)20 7629 5161 mfa@marlboroughfineart.com www.marlboroughlondon.com

Introduction

By Martin Gayford On or about Monday, August 13th, 1888, Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo. In this he explained that his friend Paul-Eugène Milliet, a second lieutenant in the Zouave regiment, would be bringing a roll of 36 new paintings to Paris. Van Gogh immediately went on to add that he was “desperately dissatisfied” with many of these (which included some of the best-known images in the history of art), but he was sending them anyway. They might give Theo “a vague idea of some really fine subjects in the countryside” around Arles...

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Among the ones he briefly described was

The title of O’Donoghue’s exhibition is

“a quick sketch I made of myself laden with boxes,

“Scorched Earth” which, he points out, usually

sticks, a canvas, on the sunny Tarascon road”.

alludes to the military strategy of destroying

This picture, later entitled The Painter on the Road

everything of use to the enemy. The ferocity of the

to Tarascon was made at the height of the torrid

temperature in Arles at high summer, of course is

Provençal summer. It showed Vincent paused for

real not metaphorical, as O’Donoghue himself has

a moment on the route which led past his studio

experienced when working there. But it is the fiery

in the Yellow House, and out of town. He was

furnace of Van Gogh’s creativity that he really has

carrying his backpack, and grasped another

in mind: the way that the Dutchman, alone, isolated

bag and a portfolio.

and almost completely unknown, produced a stream

of masterpieces that transformed our sense of what

This little canvas, now lost for over 70 years,

has haunted the imaginations of later artists.

a painting could be. Or as O’Donoghue describes it,

In 1957 Francis Bacon executed a series of pictures

“the intensity and heat of Van Gogh’s vision

echoing and reimagining The Painter on the Road

as realised in the last two years of his life”.

to Tarascon. Hughie O’Donoghue has also returned

to the lost Van Gogh at intervals, making three large

great artist”, he continues, “What he accomplished

works related to it a decade ago, and now a

was a kind of two year revolution in art, carried out

sequence of large new paintings in this exhibition,

in some remote place in the south of France. It’s so

including Lavender Field, Hammering the Earth,

improbable. I suppose that’s why I return to him,

The Full Heat of the Sun and Revolution Road.

it’s so life-enhancing that someone can do that”.

These depict a landscape under intense

“That for me is why Van Gogh was such a

O’Donoghue’s representations of Van Gogh

heat, some like Crows Above a Grain Field IV

striding out in Lavender Field - and also seen close

burn with orange-red flame.

up in a series of closely-cropped heads - are not

intended as literal likenesses. A 21st century portrait

They also conflate two points in Van Gogh’s

“What he (Van Gogh) accomplished was a kind of two year revolution in art, carried out in some remote place in the south of France.

It’s so improbable. I suppose that’s why I return to him, it’s so life-enhancing that someone can do that”.

brief life. Visually, O’Donoghue connects the fields

of Van Gogh is a problematic notion, since we only

of grain beside the path outside Arles with those

see Vincent as filtered through his own sensibility

ones of a later harvest, in July 1890 at Auvers to

and that of other painters including Gauguin and

the north of France over which Van Gogh painted

Toulouse Lautrec. There are, presumably through

flocks of ominous crows. It was there, amongst

Van Gogh’s own choice, no photographic portraits

the ripe corn, that Vincent shot himself.

of Van Gogh as an adult. He loved paint and hated the camera.

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“From the conceptual stand-point painting is often attacked as just rhetoric, a series of skills, going through the motions. But real painting is never about that. It’s always about what the American visionary artist Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917) described.

He said it was like an inch worm on the edge of a leaf.

Feeling your way forward”.

In any case O’Donoghue wasn’t trying for that

The “lone striding figure” blends with many

kind of verisimilitude. “I’ve had some extraordinary

other such travellers: some forebears of the painter’s,

likenesses that I’ve had to get rid of, because they

others images he has found. Among these layers of

weren’t interesting as paintings. What I’m trying

association are the family narratives, his grandfather,

to do is make a painting of Van Gogh”. That is an

leaving Kerry for England in 1911 and his father’s

apt tribute to the Dutchman, who had as great

journeys during the Second World War in France

a sense of the possibilities of paint as anyone in

and Italy. Other soldiers in images O’Donoghue

art history - and, furthermore, of the mutability

has found, include a French Poilu - or infantryman

of human appearance.

- on the march in 1914.

The same sitter, Van Gogh wrote to his sister,

For O’Donoghue the image of the painter on

can serve as the subject for very different portraits.

the road “ties in with other themes that have evolved

O’Donoghue’s intimate evocations of Vincent’s face

in my work, particularly the idea of the individual

are informed by certain self portraits - the two with

journey that everybody has to make. Van Gogh

bandaged ear, for example, from January 1889

is an emblematic figure. He’s now become a sort

and the marvellous one in Boston, dedicated to

of latter-day saint, an exemplar”. Vincent has,

Paul Gauguin. The latter, by the way has had an

in a secular sense, become the patron saint of

effect on the series, since it was Gauguin who

painters. He was the only great predecessor Picasso

bought a length of jute cloth shortly after he

could not imagine in a Rolls Royce, the Spaniard’s

arrived in Arles on which he and Vincent worked.

own test of incorruptibility. He had, as O’Donoghue

This in turn prompted O’Donoghue to use tarpaulin

says, “This willingness just to career on”.

as a support for the large pictures in this series.

is essentially a venture into the unknown. “From the

In a way, for O’Donoghue Van Gogh is

Painting itself, O’Donoghue believes,

everyman. “The lone striding figure on the road

conceptual stand-point it is often attacked as just

is symbolic of the individual journey”. Hammering

rhetoric, a series of skills, going through the motions.

the Earth does not depict Van Gogh at all, but

But real painting is never about that. It’s always about

O’Donoghue’s son - who also happens to be called

what the American visionary artist Albert Pinkham

Vincent - wearing his father’s suit and carrying his

Ryder (1847-1917) described. He said it was like

great-grandfather’s case, while standing on the

an inch worm on the edge of a leaf. Feeling your

road outside O’Donoghue’s studio in County Mayo,

way forward”.

Ireland. He feels this subject therefore has “an element of a Victorian tableau vivant in which an event is reconstructed”.

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“He (Van Gogh) painted without fear. The conceptual context in which I grew up has killed painting. You can’t make a conceptual painting, it’s a contradiction. You have ideas, but ultimately you have to submit yourself to the maelstrom of trying to make a painting.”

O’Donoghue sees Van Gogh as a model for

There is a sense of lurking threat about The

those searching for a way to escape the postmodern

Painter on the Road to Tarascon which, O’Donoghue

attitude to art-making, obsessed by appropriation

connects with Van Gogh’s approaching mental

and irony. “Van Gogh’s journey, which is striving for

breakdown. “In the paintings of the figure on the

some sort of truth, is the absolute opposite of irony”.

road”, O’Donoghue comments, “there is a fear behind

As a young artist, O’Donoghue found Van Gogh

things, but he’s trying to stare down his own fear”.

a vital role-model. “I grew up at a time when irony

Vincent’s black shadow capering on the path beside

was the only show in town. I did an MA at Goldsmith’s

him has an ominous vitality of its own (a detail that

in 1980, at that time the only kind of art you were

Francis Bacon, for whom shadows stood for mortality

supposed to make was predicated on irony. I just

and fate, fixed upon).

didn’t believe that”.

the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Magdeburg in 1912.

Years before, he had encountered the

Van Gogh “quick sketch” was purchased by

Dutch painter’s art in his home town as a teenager

During the Second World War it was stored in a salt

in Manchester. “The Manchester Art Gallery

mine, deep underground. The painting was probably

happened to have on loan one of the first pictures

destroyed when a fire broke out there in April 1945.

he made in Arles. I used to go and look at this

Tantalisingly, though, there exists a small possibility

canvas of a tree in blossom in the snow. That was

it was looted and still exists. In any case this vanished

revelatory”. When he was 20, for the first time

masterpiece continues to cast an extraordinary

O’Donoghue made his own pilgrimage in Vincent’s

shadow over contemporary painters - as this

footsteps to Arles in 1973. Since then Van Gogh has

exhibition so powerfully demonstrates.

become “a touchstone, a real painter, with a sense of the material: the mud that is paint”.

“He painted without fear. The conceptual

Martin Gayford is an art critic and expert on the life of Vincent van Gogh.

context in which I grew up has killed painting.

You can’t make a conceptual painting, it’s a contradiction. You have ideas, but ultimately you have to submit yourself to the maelstrom of trying to make a painting. You have to find what the triggers are to drag something of interest out of yourself.

You have to get into an area where you don’t know what you are doing or you won’t do anything interesting”.

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List of Works

Hammering the Earth, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid and leaf metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 243 x 368 cm Revolution Road, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 185 x 240 cm

The Painter Van Gogh III, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm The Painter Van Gogh IV, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm The Painter Van Gogh V, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

Lavender Field, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm

The Painter Van Gogh VI, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Full Heat of the Sun, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm

The Painter Van Gogh VII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh I, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh VIII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh II, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh IX, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

When the Last Fires Have Burned Out, 2017-18 oil on linen canvas 125 x 158 cm Crows Above a Grainfield I, Aloft, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm Crows Above a Grainfield II, Red Light, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm Crows Above a Grainfield III, Turbulent Indigo, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm Crows Above a Grainfield IV, Blue Remembered, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm

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Hammering the Earth, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid and leaf metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 243 x 368 cm

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Revolution Road, 2017-18 oil, acrylic, liquid metal and photographic trace on prepared tarpaulin 185 x 240 cm

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Lavender Field, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm

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The Full Heat of the Sun, 2017-18 oil on prepared tarpaulin 179 x 238 cm

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The Painter Van Gogh I, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

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The Painter Van Gogh II, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh III, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

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The Painter Van Gogh IV, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

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The Painter Van Gogh V, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh VI, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

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The Painter Van Gogh VII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

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The Painter Van Gogh VIII, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

The Painter Van Gogh IX, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 46 x 43.5 cm

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When the Last Fires Have Burned Out, 2017-18 oil on linen canvas 125 x 158 cm

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Crows Above a Grainfield I, Aloft, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm

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Crows Above a Grainfield II, Red Light, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm

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Crows Above a Grainfield III, Turbulent Indigo, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm

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Crows Above a Grainfield IV, Blue Remembered, 2017-18 oil on jute canvas 85 x 107 cm 33

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Hughie O’Donoghue (b. 1953) BIOGRAPHY

2008

Lost Histories; Imagined Realities, Gemeentemuseum

Den Haag, Netherlands

Born in Manchester, England

Parables, Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris

The Geometry of Paths, James Hyman Gallery, London

1981-82

Studied at Goldsmiths College, London

2007

Last Poems, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin

1984-86

Residency at The National Gallery, London

2006

Souvenir of St. Valery, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

2000

Residency at St John’s College, Oxford

The Deep, Galway Arts Festival 2006, Fairgreen Gallery,

2009

Elected Royal Academician

Galway City and Aras Enna Arts Centre, Inis Oirr.

2013

Creates new stained glass in Westminster Abbey for the 60th

2005

Parable of the Prodigal Son, Fenton Gallery, Cork

Anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen

Venice Project: The Drunkenness of Noah, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

2018

Commissioned by St Paul’s Cathedral, painting of St Martin

2004

Fiume, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

in the Knights’ Chapel

Crucifixions, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland, off site project

Lives and works in London and Ireland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

at Duiske Abbey Graiguenamanagh and Callan Friary, Callan

2003

Painting Caserta Red, Imperial War Museum, London; Imperial

War Museum North, Manchester

Postcard from Milan and other prints, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

2002

Course of the Diver, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

Course of the Diver, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich

2017

The Tempest: Ireland. Memory. Identity, Belfast International

2001-03

Richer Dust, Carborundum prints and related Paintings,

Arts Festival, Belfast

the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Djanolgly Art Gallery, University

2016

One Hundred Years and Four Quarters, Galway International

of Nottingham; Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath;

Arts Festival, Galway

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

The Red Earth, Visual Carlow, Carlow

2001

Naming the Fields, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin

Seven Halts on the Somme, Leighton House, London

Navigation, Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar

2015

Hughie O’Donoghue, Permanent Green, Marlborough Fine Art, London

2000

Ancient Music, Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt

2014

Seven Halts on The Somme, Verey Gallery, Eton College, Berkshire

Smoke Signals, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

The Measure of all Things, The Chapter House, Westminster Abbey, London

1999

Niobe’s Children, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich

2013

Hughie O’Donoghue, A Need for Gardens, Marlborough Fine Art, London;

Episodes from the Passion, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin

The Hunt Museum, Limerick

Corp, Paintings and Drawings of the Human Body 1984-1998

Gort Rua, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin

Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester

2012

A Moment’s Liberty, Marlborough Fine Art, London

1998 - 99

Corp, Paintings and Drawings of the Human Body 1984- 1998

Artists’ Laboratory 05: Hughie O’Donoghue, RA, Painting / Memory,

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Weston Rooms, Royal Academy, London

Crossing the Rapido: An Italian Campaign 9 October 1943-29 April 1998

Hughie O’Donoghue, Vivid Field, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal

Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

2011

Road, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague

1997

Via Crucis, Haus der Kunst, Munich

Excavations, Trinity Hall, Cambridge

A Line of Retreat, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

Absolut Festival Gallery, Galway

2010

Last Days on the Islands, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin

2009

The Journey, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds

Hughie O’Donoghue, Recent Paintings and Selected works from the

American Ireland Fund Donation, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Spirit of the Figure, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury Christ Church

University, Kent

Pharos, James Hyman Gallery, London 37

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

LITERATURE

2017

John McAuliffe, Permanent Green, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 2015 Colin Wiggins, Hughie O’Donoghue- a Moment’s Liberty, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 2012 PHAROS, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2009 Tanja Pirsig-Marshall, Hughie O’Donoghue: The Journey, Leeds Museums & Galleries, Leeds, 2009 Sean Kissane, Hughie O’Donoghue: Recent Paintings and Selected Works, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2009 James Hyman, Hughie O’Donoghue: Lost Histories, Imagined Realities, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, 2008 James Hamilton, Hughie O’Donoghue: Painting, memory, myth, Merrell Publishers, London, 2003

RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London

2016

A Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London

2015

A Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London

RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London

2014

The Power of the Sea, Royal West of England, Academy, Bristol

2013 Shaping Identities: Yesterday and Today/Together, Ireland and Europe Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe 2012 The Mechanical Hand, Kings Place Gallery, London Borrowed Memories, Luan Gallery, Athlone 2011

Afterlife, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

2010 RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London RHA Summer Exhibition, Dublin Retrospective, Visual Carlow, Carlow 2008

Night, A Time Between, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

2007-08

I’m Always Touched by your Presence, Dear – New Acquisitions,

2007

Then and Now, James Hyman Gallery, London

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 2006 Drawing Inspiration, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal Bodies of Water, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; Southampton City Art Gallery 2005

Ljubljana International Graphic Biennale representing Great Britain.

Eye of the Storm, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

2004

Views from an Island, Contemporary Irish Art from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Millennium Museum, Beijing; Shanghai Art Gallery

2003 Past Memory/Present Feeling, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts Contemporary Prints, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford The Journey, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester 2000 Geschichte und Erinnerung Kunst der Gegenwart (History and Memory in Contemporary Art), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt Five Centuries of Genius, European Master Printmaking, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide An Artist’s Century, Masterworks and Self Portraits of 20th Century Irish Artists, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin The Times of Our Lives: Endings, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester 1999

Graphic! British Prints Now, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

1997-99 Last Dreams of the Millennium: The Re-emergence of British Romantic Painting, University Art Gallery, California State University; Main Art Gallery, California State University, Fullerton; University of Hawaii 1997-98 When Time Began to Rant and Rave: Figurative Painting from 20th Century Ireland, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; University of California Art Museum, Berkeley; Grey Art Gallery & Study Centre, New York; University of Michigan Museum of Art Andata e Ritorno: British Artists in Italy 1980-96, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

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PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Museum of Art Bath: Victoria Art Gallery Belfast: Ulster Museum Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Bradford: Cartwright Hall Art Gallery Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum Cork: Crawford Art Gallery Cork: National University of Ireland Den Haag: Gemeentemuseum Dublin: Chester Beatty Library Dublin: Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art Dublin: The Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin: Trinity College Galway: National University of Ireland University of Glasgow: Hunterian Art Gallery Huddersfield Art Gallery Hull: Ferens Art Gallery Limerick: Hunt Museum London: British Museum London: The Imperial War Museum London: The National Gallery London: Arts Council of Great Britain University of Manchester: Whitworth Art Gallery Maynooth: National University of Ireland Mayo General Hospital Middlesbrough: Cleveland County Museums New Haven: Yale Center for British Art University of Nottingham: Djanogly Art Gallery Oxford: Ashmolean Museum University of Oxford: St John’s College

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London Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd 6 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4BY Telephone: +44 (0)20 7629 5161 Telefax: +44 (0)20 7629 6338 mfa@marlboroughfineart.com www.marlboroughlondon.com

New York Marlborough Gallery Inc. 40 West 57th Street New York, N.Y. 10019 Telephone: +1 212 541 4900 Telefax: +1 212 541 4948 mny@marlboroughgallery.com www.marlboroughgallery.com

Marlborough Contemporary 6 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4BY Telephone: +44 (0)20 7629 5161 Telefax: +44 (0)20 7629 6338 info@marlboroughcontemporary.com www.marlboroughcontemporary.com

Marlborough Contemporary 545 West 25th Street New York, N.Y. 10001 Telephone: +1 212 463 8634 Telefax: +1 212 463 9658 info@marlboroughcontemporary.com www.marlboroughcontemporary.com

Madrid GalerĂ­a Marlborough SA Orfila 5 28010 Madrid Telephone: +34 91 319 1414 Telefax: +34 91 308 4345 info@galeriamarlborough.com www.galeriamarlborough.com

Barcelona Marlborough Barcelona Enric Granados, 68 08008 Barcelona.

Telephone: +34 93 467 4454 Telefax: +34 93 467 4451 infobarcelona@galeriamarlborough.com www.galeriamarlborough.com

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Text: Martin Gayford Martin Gayford is an art critic and expert on the life of Vincent van Gogh Photography: Anthony Hobbs Design: Stocks Taylor Benson Print: Impress Print Services ISBN 978-1-909707-47-4 Catalogue No. 775 Š 2018 Marlborough