Description
Signed and dated '94, and inscribed verso, oil on canvas laid on panel
Dimensions
152cm x 85cm (59.2in x 33in)
Footnote
Provenance:Garvey Collection
Exhibited: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1994
Like his friend and mentor, Carel Weight, Mick Rooney is drawn to the human figure, exploring diverse aspects of our existence in colourdrenched paintings that display a similar love of the surreal. While
Weight's works frequently focus on the British suburban existence,
however, Rooney's oeuvre reflects his love of travel and the exotic, and the influence of religious artwork in paintings that often attain the
chromatic intensity of stained glass. In its blend of universal human
experience within an exotic and otherworldy setting, his work may be
described as a pictorial equivalent of Latin American magic realism.
Born in Surrey in 1944, Rooney studied at the Royal College of Art from 1964 to 1967, before winning a scholarship to study at the British School in Rome. From 1965 he has exhibited in numerous galleries within London and Europe, and his work is included in public collections,
including the Royal Academy of Arts and the Government Art
Collection. He was elected Royal Academician in 1991, the year in which he also took up the post of Head of Painting at the Royal Academy Schools. He now lives and works in London.