FELIM EGAN (IRISH 1952-2020) §
UNTITLED BLUE - 2002
£2,520
Auction: 13 August 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
Signed verso, acrylic and mixed media on canvas
Dimensions
120cm x 120cm (47in x 47in), unframed
Provenance
Collection of the Late Dr. Tom Scott, sold to benefit the National Trust for Scotland.
Exhibited: Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
Footnote
‘… A balance of shifting brilliances.’ – Seamus Heany on the work of Felim Egan
Felim Egan is regarded as one of Ireland’s most popular contemporary artists. He achieved early commercial success and went on to represent Ireland at the Paris Biennale in France in 1981, and at the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil in 1985. Egan won the prestigious UNESCO international prize for painting in Paris in its inaugural year of 1993, and has had major exhibitions at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Born in an orphanage in Donegal, Egan was adopted by a family living in Strabane, County Tyrone. His talent was recognised during his school years and he received early encouragement to follow an artistic path. After an art foundation in Belfast School of Art in 1971, Egan completed further studies at the Portsmouth Polytechnic and ultimately the Slade School of Fine Art in London between 1975-77.
He was based in Dublin for much of his career, near the bay, where the changing effects of light on the horizon would permeate his practice. Though formally abstract, nature atmospherically steeps his work and is alluded to through his choice of titles. Instinctual responses to music and literature are also integral to his work. The word ‘restrained’ is often used to describe Egan’s work, and his technique of subtly and painstakingly layering washes of paint lends his canvases an ephemeral, meditative quality. Mapped on these misty, shifting surfaces are his playful hieroglyph-like geometric forms. Egan was fascinated by Celtic stone carving and travelled extensively to Europe and beyond, examining ancient cultural sites. These preoccupations inflect his very technique: Egan uses a combination of acrylic mixed with powdered stone, creating the distinctive chalky texture one instantly recognises within his work.
Lyon & Turnbull are pleased to offer the artwork Untitled (Blue) executed in 2002, which showcases how his mastery of colour became ever more sophisticated across the years.