Nobel Laureates Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Heaney a Series of SCULPTURES by ROWAN GILLESPIE I Dedicate This Booklet to the Memory of My Father, the Honorable John J

THE FOUR IRISH LITERARY nobel laureates yeats, shaw, beckett and heaney a series of SCULPTURES BY ROWAN GILLESPIE I dedicate this booklet to the memory of my father, the Honorable John J. Burns and to the Jesuit priests who made it possible for him and for countless others from humble beginnings to reach for the stars and achieve greatness.

Brian P. Burns, Palm Beach, 2012

The publishers would like to thank Professor Thomas Hachey, Dr Robert O’Neill, Lee Pellegrini, Joan Reilly and Brian Smale

THE FOUR IRISH LITERARY NOBEL LAUREATES YEATS, SHAW, BECKETT AND HEANEY A series of sculptures by Rowan Gillespie

First published by Clonlea Studios and Brian Burns in 2012

Text © Roger Kohn 2012 Copyright for typesetting, editing, layout, design © Roger Kohn 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by Badger Press Limited, Bowness on Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 3AS

Design, typesetting and production Roger Kohn

Copy editors Jayne Booth and Joan Reilly

Photography Rowan Gillespie, Lee Pellegrini, Brian Smale and Roger Kohn

Printed on Revive 50:50 Silk, a 50% recycled paper.

The composition of the paper is 25% de-inked post-consumer waste, 25% unprinted pre-consumer waste and 50% virgin fiber. All pulps used are Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) and the manufacturing mill is accredited with the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management. THE FOUR IRISH LITERARY NOBEL LAUREATES YEATS, SHAW, BECKETT AND HEANEY s e t

A SERIES OF SCULPTURES ǡ RIPPLES OF ULYSSES, a e BY ROWAN GILLESPIE 2000, Regis University, r Denver, Colorado. u a l

l e

PROLOG b

Ĭ THE THREE JOYCES, o n

2000, was inspired by the

n 2000, the Jesuit fathers of Regis University in Denver, y

photograph of a group r

IColorado, commissioned the Irish sculptor, Rowan of friends; Martin Hart, a r

Gillespie, to create the embodiment of Irish literary genius Rowan Gillespie and e t

James Joyce to preside over their campus. For Rowan, this i

Roger Kohn standing by l was a mammoth task, for it required him to come to terms

a second version of THE h s with both the eccentric writer and his hugely complex RIPPLES OF ULYSSES, i r

masterpiece, Ulysses . Rowan recalls that it was as if Joyce i 2000, in the garden of the himself was directing the work, his photographs covering the r

Merrion Hotel, Dublin u

walls as the artist’s workshop became an intimate setting in (bottom). o which their relationship was able to develop and flourish. f e

The result was an epiphany for the sculptor. A life-size h t

Joyce, cast in bronze, stands proud in the center of a series

of eighteen, flat bronze segments, each laboriously 1 1

engraved with a passage from one of the episodes from the

book. The resultant RIPPLES OF ULYSSES shows the E I P

master surrounded by his genius, enhanced and given S E

resonance by a gentle trickling of water beneath the L L I

segments. An almost duplicate version of RIPPLES stands G

in the garden of the N Merrion Hotel in A W

Dublin. Five years later, O Regis commissioned R Rowan to embody the essence of the Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who is depicted kneeling before God, his poetry an offering. A desktop-sized bronze, THE THREE JOYCES, inspired by RIPPLES and depicting Joyce at three salient stages in his life, was acquired by Brian P. Burns who donated it to Boston College in Massachusetts, the largest member of the Association of twenty-eight American Jesuit Colleges and Universities, in December 2001. The piece was to be displayed in the prestigious John J. Burns Library in the leafy, historic Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill. 2 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates Ǡ ALL IMAGES: LEE PELLEGRINI, JOHN J. BURNS LIBRARY, BOSTON COLLEGE H Ǡ B O o o p n 1 J s e T . 9 u

t n J h o 8 d o ’ e n 6 , g h

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N O T S O B

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THE HONORABLE JOHN J. BURNS LIBRARY, S e N t BOSTON COLLEGE R U a B

e . J

r N H he Irish-American business u O J a ,

T entrepreneur, CEO of San l H

C l Francisco-based BF Enterprises, R e U H b C

business attorney and philan- o N O n thropist, Brian P. Burns was named as one of the The first four buildings of T

į F I y Greatest Irish Americans of the twentieth century by Boston College's Chestnut Hill L C r

Irish America magazine in November 1999. campus; St Mary's Hall, Gasson a

He is the founder and principal benefactor of the John r Hall, Devlin Hall and Bapst Library. e t

J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections, i l housed in the spectacular Bapst building at Chestnut Hill, h s

designed in the English Collegiate Gothic style. It has been i r

described as the most beautiful library in America. Renovations i

during the mid 1980s transformed the entire north wing of the r u

building into a state-of-the-art facility. Brian Burns, along with his brother John J. Burns o Jr and sister Alice, dedicated the library in 1986 to their father, the late Honorable John f e

J. Burns. Three generations of the family now give financial support to the institution. h t

The library is therefore a constantly evolving tribute to Judge John J. Burns; a

remarkable man who was born in 1901 and graduated from Boston College in 1921. From 3

mowing the lawns at Harvard in his youth, Judge Burns returned first as a brilliant student

with a prodigious intellect and later as a professor of law, who, at twenty-nine, became E I the youngest Superior Court Justice in Massachusetts history. He rose to high office in P S E

Washington under the Roosevelt administration and was appointed by Joseph Kennedy L L as first counsel of the newly formed Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (the I G

SEC) and thereafter as Special Council for the newly created United States Maritime N Commission before establishing a highly regarded national law practice in Boston and A W

New York, becoming William Randolph Hearst’s attorney and executor. Judge Burns died O in 1957. R The former President and now Chancellor of Boston College, Father J. Donald Monan, Ĭ Rowan Gillespie delivers THE SJ, has been the spiritual father and a constant friend to the Burns Library. Father THREE JOYCES to Bob O’Neill at Monan’s brilliant successor, the current President, Father William P. Leahy, SJ, has the Burns Library in 2001. E G

continued to provide strong support. Under the directorship of E L L

Professor Thomas Hachey of the Center for Irish Programs, O C

another true friend of the library, and the inspired librarianship of N O T

Dr Robert O’Neill, now celebrating his twenty-sixth year of tenure, S O B

the Burns Library has become one of the world's foremost Y R A

research collections. It documents the life, history, music and R B I L culture of the Irish people, boasting over 275,000 volumes, 16 S N

million manuscripts, artifacts, maps, paintings, photographs, R U B

architectural records and associated ephemera dating from the . J

late eighteenth century to the present day. It is also home to rare N H O J books and manuscripts, US Congressional archives, an Irish music , I N center, university archives, Jesuitica, special collections and an I R G extensive digital archive; fast becoming a leading center for digital E L L E

scholarship. Its literary collections of Ireland’s greatest writers, P

E including the Nobel Literature Laureates George Bernard Shaw, E L 4 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates

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BOBBIE HANVEY ARCHIVE, JOHN J. BURNS LIBRARY, BOSTON COLLEGE THE BRIAN P. BURNS COLLECTION s e t a

n 1978 Brian Burns became the youngest ever director of the American Irish e IFoundation formed by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Eamon de Valera to r u

encourage American charity for Ireland. Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, he a l

engineered its merger with the Ireland Fund, creating the hugely effective “American l e

Ireland Fund”. He has since worked diligently to aid the Irish economy and has been b instrumental in furthering the Northern Ireland peace process. o n

Inspired by his Dublin art dealer and friend, Willie Dillon, Mr Burns began to immerse y

himself in Ireland’s history and culture. His remarkable art collection, according to Susan r a

Moore of Apollo magazine, is based on his hope and expectation that a people with such r e

great literary and musical gifts should, surely, also be able to paint? He was not alone in t i l knowing little about Ireland’s then relatively unsung visual artists at that time, and set h

about, in his own words, “to teach Americans” with what he calls his “visual, tapestry” s i

that the Irish contribution to the visual art world has been immense. r i

Over the last forty years, Mr Burns and his wife Eileen (below) have amassed the r

finest and most extensive collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Irish art u o

outside its homeland, including pieces by Sir John Lavery, Sir William Orpen, Roderic f O'Connor, William Leech, Paul Henry and Jack Yeats as well as contemporary artists e h

such as Rowan Gillespie. He is keen to stress that he has made many lasting t

friendships along the way.

In 1996, a selection of paintings from the Collection entitled “America’s Eye: Irish

Paintings from the Collection of Brian P. Burns” was shown at the McMullen Museum E N I O P of Art, Boston College, later moving to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art I T S C E in Dublin. A year later, Paul Mellon’s British Art Center at Yale University hosted an E L L L L I exhibition entitled, “Irish paintings from the Collection of Brian P. Burns”; an expanded O C G

version of the earlier show. Visitors were greeted by a rare copy of the proclamation of R N A

A Irish Independence; the exhibits being further contextualized by books and manuscripts H S I W R I from the Burns Library. This created a narrative of the development of Irish identity O S N R R U B

. P

N A I R B

į Exhibition catalogs from “America’s Eye”, 1996 and “Island: Arts from Ireland”, 2000. E L A M S

N ǡ Brian and Eileen Burns at home A I

R in Palm Beach with Liam and Oscar. B s

e through that most shameful period in British history, when a million Irish people died t in what was then part of the richest and most powerful nation on earth. The exhibition a

e was a testament to the heroism that produced such great literature and art. r

u In May 2000, at the invitation of Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, a version of this a

l exhibition called “Island: Arts from Ireland” was opened by then President of Ireland

e Mary McAleese to inaugurate a new gallery at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center

b for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, as part of its Arts from Ireland Festival. o

n More recently, in 2007, a selection of forty paintings from the Collection were shown in

y the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona. Art and Antiques Magazine has named Mr Burns r

a one of America’s top 100 art collectors. r e t

i THE NOBEL LAUREATES COMMISSION l

h s

i n the spring of 2012, Brian Burns phoned Rowan Gillespie to ask if he knew anyone r

i Iwho might like to sculpt a bust of Ireland’s 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize in

r Literature, Seamus Heaney, to complement THE THREE JOYCES in the Burns Library. u Rowan Gillespie adding the o Ĭ Rowan saw this as a golden opportunity for himself, to work with a man whom he f finishing touches to TITANICA, admired enormously and whose work had been a source of inspiration on numerous e

h 2012, in his workshop. occasions. But at the time he was deeply engaged in TITANICA, a depiction of the t

resurrected embodiment of the spirit of the ill-fated Titanic ,

bound for the prestigious new Titanic Centre in Belfast. 6

However, Rowan met Seamus at an exhibition opening in

E Dublin and asked if he would be prepared to sit for the bust. In I P

S Rowan’s words, Seamus was “sweet and charming as usual” E

L when he arrived at the sculptor’s Clonlea Studios in Blackrock, L I

G south of Dublin for a comfortable afternoon sitting with tea and

N banana bread. A Mr Burns then added... “actually, we’d love to have Beckett as W

O well...” This increased the stakes considerably. Rowan had R sculpted a bust of Samuel Beckett once before – actually three busts – for a proposed three times life-size public sculpture on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. But like Beckett’s character Godot in the play of that name, the project never quite materialized due to a lack of funding. From that point it was a small step indeed to envisage a triumvirate – Heaney, Beckett and Shaw – three giants of the Irish literary scene. The power of three is seductive. Inspired by a visit to the new George Bernard Shaw theater at Carlow in the south-east of Ireland, Rowan found himself almost instinctively including the great man without imagining that Mr Burns might show an interest in acquiring the whole set. On seeing the completed work on Rowan’s website, Brian Burns decided that W.B. Yeats, the fourth Irish Literary Laureate must also be included. Rowan quickly agreed. He had sculpted William Butler Yeats once before, in 1990. The literary giant stands proudly before the Ulster Bank in Sligo cloaked in his genius – his texts having been applied laboriously by hand in Rowan’s workshop prior to casting. The late Senator Michael s ǡ e B.Yeats unveils the Rowan t a

Gillespie sculpture of his father, e r

W.B.YEATS in Sligo, 1990. u a l

l e b o n

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r u o f e h t

Ĭ SAMUEL BECKETT,

maquette, 1989. 7

E I P S E L L I G

N A W O R

ǡ The yellow suited W.B. Yeats, 1989. Rowan improvised a new technique to apply each letter to the wax skin of Yeats (created around his life size clay model) with softened black “spaghetti” wax, rather like icing words on to a cake. He then painted it over with “mansion wax” to make it more robust before encasing it in a plaster mould. The mould was then heated so that the wax melted and drained away, to be replaced by molten bronze. This is the “lost wax” process for which Rowan has become internationally renowned. 8 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates

NOBEL FOUNDATION, WIKIPEDIA GEORGE CHARLES BERESFORD, WIKIPEDIA į į W G . e B o . r Y g e e a

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l e

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o h h h n s b c 2 e r e r r r n t o t r o i s l 9 i l n h n h g g g g d d d k o o e e e e e e d s s s 6 y y y ” t t f f , s

An ardent socialist and journalist, he wrote for the Fabian Society and became e internationally renowned for his oratory and wit. In 1895 he founded the London School t a of Economics. He wrote more than sixty plays, among them Arms and the Man (1894), e r

Caesar and Cleopatra (1901), Man and Superman (1905), Major Barbara (1905), u a

Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923), and was also an essayist, novelist and short- l

story writer. In 1939 he won an Oscar for his screen adaptation of Pygmalion into a e

Hollywood movie. A further adaptation in 1956 led to the blockbuster musical My Fair b o

Lady . The story follows the Pygmalion myth about a Cypriot sculptor who carved a n

woman out of ivory and promptly fell in love with her. Cupid gave her life and and the y r

two were married. a A I r D

In 1906 Shaw and his wife moved into a house in Ayot St Lawrence, a small village e E P t I i in Hertfordshire, England. He died at the age of ninety-four from renal failure, brought K I l

W on by a fall while pruning a tree. , C h I P s

i R E r G BECKETT i

O R r

į Samuel Beckett u

amuel Barclay Beckett (born 13 April 1906, Dublin; died 22 December 1989, Paris) o Swas awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize “for his writing, which – in new forms for the f e

novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”. He made h t

a major contribution to “The Theater of the Absurd” with masterpieces such as Waiting

for Godot and Endgame and published numerous essays, reviews and novels of which 9

Murphy and Malone Dies are perhaps the best known.

Beckett was brought up in a wealthy Protestant family in Foxrock, County Dublin. E I P

Educated privately, he graduated from Trinity College Dublin in French, Italian and S E

English in 1927. Initially a great admirer of the linguistic virtuosity of his friend James Ĭ Seamus Heaney at the Irish Poets L L I

Joyce, he moved inexorably towards a “deconstruction” of traditional realism. Like the Conference, Slieve Donard Hotel in G

anorexic sculptures of his friend Giacometti, Beckett's work grew ever more austere Newcastle, Co. Down in September N and minimal. 1988. From the Bobbie Hanvey A W

He moved to Paris in 1938 and joined rive gauche society, playing chess with the Archive in the Burns Library. O R Dadaist Marcel Duchamp. Under German occupation he joined the French Resistance

and as a result of his bravery was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la E G E

Résistance by the French government. Beckett died from emphysema and possibly L L O

Parkinson's disease at the age of eighty-three. C

N O T S

HEANEY O B

, Y R A

he 1995 Prize was awarded to Seamus Justin Heaney, also born on 13 April, but R B I L

Tin 1939 in Casteldàwson, Northern Ireland “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical S N depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.” R U B

The first of nine children, he attended Anahorish Primary School, winning a J

N scholarship to St Columb’s College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Derry. H O J

Much of his poetry is a response to both the beauty and the threatening nature of , E V I his rural childhood, his first published volume being Death of a Naturalist (1966), which H C R was an immediate success. The opening poem, Digging , evokes the landscape where A

Y E he grew up and exalts the passion with which his ancestors farmed the land. Living V N A

through the “Troubles” in Belfast in 1969, he was moved to “embrace the general H

E I

human situation” from a staunchly Republican perspective, having been raised as a B B

Catholic child in a predominantly Protestant Ulster. He found a powerful metaphor for O B 1 0 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates į S h a S w Ǡ A Ĭ ,

M B

S e N U h c a O E k w L T e H

t I B a t

e , – n E

a H d C A n

K Y e T a e y E R n a

T i e I t n B T s y

U i ( i n d n r T o

E c c n t l l

a z a T a i e y O y l ) . . ,

A a S O t r m b h t t b w h h e

e e i h s x m s a e c i e a s k f a s I H

o d

o n t n t t e o

w p r s i e g e r

b t d n u a o 1 d e

i e

a g i w n n l 9 h l z , n i i t

l n

t 9 s t t a a o a e h S

i a i d I l 9 o c r

w r s

r a e i J c

r , n a

n e

t a l .

e e m H i l

K i i

l t o m s o

n e a

t e . a t a c f f n c n t

u e

. R u a u n o d h

k d r l o n s r n o g e i t e m

s f y

a e w e

t t h

. H

t a e t y n o

c . h a M l ,

s e i o i

d Y w v C e n l H t a o a n

g n o o a n t e n u n t h h

m n n o r g a b y

e e i o h r

n b o y t h c m l t u o

p o e u h r i e i s p s e y k i a e s t e n t a

e i

d i n r o W r f s c n n

n r e

d a y n u s d o o B h o

s e m s

i E - m w h n u p i u e

y t t u e a g o

r o o e

j r w t

u n r i a w

h o d v e l n e s d i i r e i p e d

u t c a o - t c e e

e l l “ o d l a l d l u T R a f a p w g v t f p E f r e . H l i ' i l i

h l

a i v : y O o H s n r e e d r B d y n l e a t

a e e e s

t s e p s " n o r e g

r c w E l o r u A r d t

t I s l d

i e d

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t c o c t r

r u e

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c y e p o h

k s o k i h o t s e , i r g o n n

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a U n

P e a n

n . w e

t l f o l a

g r A g d d

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a r i t

S o B o

h t f e c k l g a a h n e a e e

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c h i t w T p o i i s u e t f c

e n S e t

i c r s s t o e e h e o h S r z e m e t t .

t a

v b y o

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A e a I i r t p e

s s s e f t e ” e

t d “ s o k n i r r r e o Y o ' e i

t h s

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s h H e

k a u d

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s r o f e

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a b i a s g a a

e d r n h t r e t o u a j u A o e i o

o c r e r

r s e

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i d o . p m t s e f l t a h e e a o t

t z s a e

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t h a

s p . t a l t t

r a e l

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P o r k e f t i c c e s e

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r a o f e o e

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F i i l h g e l , b t n e h c o r s i n o i

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1 1

E I P S E L L I G

N A W O R ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates 1 4 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates t Ĭ w į C i m l a o T S x n e

h e m

l c e e a o a o

m e n

d S n u s e t g u s l u

r m o d H a f i v i e

o n h i a s n g i n

m g

w a e

p s o n y e r

r d p o k l

f o c u s

a s e n h i t s r o n

s e R p g l o i , e

w w 2 n

b 0 i t a t i o 1 h n n t 2

’ g h t s . h . e w V b t m w s a s a w s i n A n o a o i c c l u o s o i a d s

s e t u c n m i w

t S n s e n h t o n R o l i a

R e d

b t s p

e t h m a o t n y i b a c e u t o

h o b a

w g t e r f e m r m r w e n l d l o i d u f y a n e

u e

r a

i o e h n t s

r e b n b d l o t n s d s e e

l ’ o

y a c

e s y

s T a c l r

H t

l d

x p n n e w w d o h t u h m t e e e

a r g e e d o o o t o

a a t o c u a n

n a u e r f r u B m n q

c k n k i n d d t g p r z u e u h h

e e . h a a a w f e y t

a e t - r . d t t s t b h

T n

a a i

o i , s a A . b t n c l

i h t

d s m

, e t n w H a

i t

e c c

m w r .

s g i s h h h e

e r h n n B i l h

e o i i x y o

b i t a b w e p h D a r S H

b i i

v m r B n f a h

i a e e

t p t y w n

r e r o o i u c e h e e i i n y

s o s e r c r e c e o i t s

h f f s s l d d

t a - n T T a o o h h o o

k v o g

k i b e c

s v

t e o t , r s

w t d h h e f g s i u e t

e r e r e h k t d u a

l o l w i a

i L e i c e d a e

e w . e d x f n r t r e e i s m i m t l a

e n

n t u n e

I y a . p

i b

w t d s

i m n n

p n g i

S s e p l t d s o r u a g n s h r p e

d e i

t r o

t o c a

e e c c e s o t a t p r

t b i

a s l r s e e

x n

h e

e c d e a l r a h r c h i a m i l p . s k a s y c s t a c n

o a i a l h n

d o m a l

a n i b a h A c i l h p e t a s i l x g b n n y n e t l a t i p o m i i e u d n e o n t n n t

. t i t r r u

s g i P p l u o e i

a o r y r t

m t , l t g c i i B r o s s u a p

t h o s

q t i o - l n e r r g f e f a

n , y b h t

e l

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t t h c u e a w d e e e . u

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s h a r , h b h

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d a e

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i a

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t s s g e , i t i h a d e i

s p S

e g l

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u n

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l i h e

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d c b c l l i s e

i t e

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e o i a h w s u s

b s g e e n r h u n u t i z

o s a . e g l

w t l

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n e

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s m

r i a l o l g o p a , s c o n s n

u d l e t p e t i

l t

d w f o f n e w t n y t h i o n t i c a t

t r

l c a u l h e r - d h h w s h e a

n d i t k l o t o o s s a t t r n n g r d , h i h e t a e s t i h a

v e t w

m n s o

e t

s g e e i t p h

e e d a n

c e t n e t t t w r e d . n

f c

. e i h r o i ,

h i t s d

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R n t r – o c i

Y w

i t r o r e u r a o a . e t o

a n f

h r e a e e s l e

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c v u s f r t f s s t e d a l o

n n l c o u w v

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e m

n n

a n

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d a s t e l w s n f t l s s a e o n e , d

f a n t a i c r e

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p n o

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n n h e i t g a

y l w t e

g d p y

t w d s h J i

u ? m h s e

a e

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e h r f t

o a i a e

f r

f a o

i t e n

e S t

e o a o i v t s h o t

e s m o B r t l o a y a e c a

w e s e t

l s f f o f n i y l

r f i

t s e

i t s

n i

a e t o e m a o g m h

, e f f e d a t d

p k s h M

c r i t t e m r

h f l r t i r r f y n e e s h e r p

i e s e o k a e a t e ,

D n b e . e i o v . s

y r e e

o n s k p

a o c e R

y p g b e e b i -

d A

r g , t

s e i g s h e s

r u i e

c o e s r h u l l t f o e m l n n e

e o

g o i c e a o s

o t i i t

e t a a s w e h t g , g a

a m l p i o i u i , c r w u

m t n o u i n i l n c

p h i

n n n

a n h e o l s t s l m t l o l a g s g e s ’ s l l ” t n d p d d d g d o o o e e s s y y t f l . . . . , , , s e t a e r u a l

l e b o n

y r a r e t i l

h s i r i

r u o f e h THE TEXTS t

1 5

owan had already decided that the Laureates must be displayed at head height to

Rcommunicate with the viewer. The heads would now be supported by their bodies E I of work. Rowan has explored this avenue before; the Sligo Yeats is cloaked in his words P S E and the Denver and Dublin Joyces are surrounded by literary segments. Hopkins kneels L L before his genius. So the Irish Laureates were to sit on elegant columns of darkly I G

patinated brass, each side inscribed with passages carefully selected from their vast N canons of work. An initial idea to allow the heads to swivel and then snap back into a A W

frontal position was rejected. Samuel Beckett’s mouth sits just above the title of his O play Mouth , so for the entire concept to work in harmony, it was necessary for the R Laureates to face forward in passport photograph style poses. Flat brass sheets were cut to size and laid beneath Rowan’s now aging, milling machine. The modus operandi now tried and tested, he keys the carefully selected passages into a workshop computer and the cutting device engraves in the style of the artist’s own handwriting. Bronze dust and flying shards fill the air, so breathing apparatus, goggles and protective gear must be worn. The cacophony of noise – metal on metal tempered with lubricating oil – is unrelenting. Constant supervision is required throughout the operation in case of breakdowns, which is slow, painstaking and very messy. MAXIMS FOR A REVOLUTIONIST – A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE BERNARD SHAW , is the title engraved on the base of Shaw’s likeness. The title is taken from his list of “Maxims for Revolutionists” an appendix from the play Man and Superman . The text on the front panel begins with Act 1 from Man and Superman : “Roebuck Ramsden is in his study... Even the top of Roebuck’s head is polished...”. The front panel ends with the final part of Maxim number 131, “Good Intentions”, which states “Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.” The panel to the left dips into Act 1 of Pygmalion (right) and gives a description of the heroine Eliza Doolittle who is to be transformed into a “lady” by the arrogant, obsessive professor Henry Higgins. The back panel contains some of Shaw’s best-known quotations, beginning with the audacious 1 6 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates į T Ĭ H

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e b k

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s s m y

s s o i o r t p a s l e l H s u a t t r a h h 9 e a p w c o n

l l h l

l e

p t

u e n i

f i r

t e i w s u c r c i c n l e 0 a g , e n

h t o l a u o d n

a e a s n o a e r n m

i 1 e t n d q a o t s

d ) t e F t a i n f r a t t

a m n s

l s

p . c o

f t c B ,

h j e i 8 d s a o , h u n u n h

r x t v t

r e i o d r e b

e o a l h a g n o n o s r

e 4 n ,

u d c r a g i y a t a e w k w c t

l M n p s t s o a l i e a i e r m u t r

- 5 e a e a h d Q r i t i s

e i n n

m t f t h

m n

h r o w t a u h d t o l n t r r -

t t f t

e e I a n u y s t u h i u a b t e t i t t h o n n t

i N p i s b 4 u i c s d

r m r n o h h h h c e e e , h c e a e r r r r m n t a

i e

a i t a 9 e t s t s i l E n h n n h d d d d o a a e e e e e e e e s s c e y y y y r t t l l l . . . . , ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates 1 8 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates smoothness of finish required to enhance that tender moment an instant s e before a loving couple’s lips meet. t a

The treatment of the Laureates lies somewhere in between. The busts e r

have a raw, unpatinated finish to give a soft matt look, slightly textured to u a

reflect the vast textural achievements attained by these literary titans. To l seal and protect the porous surface of the bronze, Rowan applied a dark l e brown metal “finishing” wax with a toothbrush. b o

In my capacity as builder and custodian of the www.rowangillespie.com website, I n

uploaded a slide show from Rowan’s fine photographs. We waited, tentatively, for a y r

reaction from across the pond. Thankfully, there was immediate approbation from Brian a

Burns in Palm Beach, Bob O’Neill the distinguished Burns Librarian in Boston and Tom r e t

Hachey, the celebrated Professor of History and Executive Director of the Center for Irish i l Programs at Boston College. These illustrious gentlemen had each played a vital part in h s

securing the Laureates sculptures for the Burns Library so it was paramount to receive i r their endorsement. i

Shaw, Beckett and Heaney were modeled, cast and patinated together – the three r u

erudite gentlemen constantly aware of each other’s development throughout the complex o process. As always, it was best to work on the elements of the project simultaneously to f e

ensure that scale, demeanour and patination synchronized. Elevated by their h t

achievements, the Laureates stood side by side outside the workshop, acclimatizing to

a moist Hibernian autumn. The commission fully realized, Rowan was contemplating 1 9

the logistics of packing crates and dispatch when a call came from Brian Burns. On

seeing the completed triumvirate on the internet for the first time, the very charismatic E I and astute Mr Burns said, “Rowan, what I want to hear you say is that we need Yeats to P S E complete the set!” L L The challenge was both alluring and irresistible. The sculptor relished the opportunity I G

to revisit Yeats at a more venerable age, aware that the temporary clay models from his N earlier subjects were still sitting in his studio, making the task a little less daunting. But A W

to achieve parity of scale, texture and patina with limited time available would be more O challenging, necessitating total recall. The demands on good casting are enormous and R it was particularly difficult to match Yeats’ complexion to that of his compatriots. Additionally, the bard was bespectacled. Occasional theft of the spectacles from the earlier sculpture in Sligo had demanded several coast-to-coast trips for the sculptor to weld new pairs onto his nose. Although this fate is unlikely to befall the more mature Yeats in the Burns Library, spectacles do present an interesting conundrum. As discussed earlier, the treatment of the eyes is paramount. In life, the convex lenses in Yeats’ spectacles made his eyes appear larger from the front. Should the sculptor then retain the integrity of the eyes or compensate for the aberration by making the eyes bigger? Inserting lenses into the frames was not an option, so Rowan decided to opt for making the eyes a little larger, scooping out the whole iris to imitate a slightly myopic “stare”. Yeats was developed in the workshop while the other gentlemen waited expectantly outdoors, eventually meeting so that their patinations could be equalized. To aid the readability of the texts, Rowan decided to darken the patina of the inscribed columns by applying extreme heat from a blowtorch before the normal sealing of the bronze surface with wax. The Laureates will darken slightly with age, but as they are to live in the comfortable 2 0 ROWAN GILLESPIE the four irish literary nobel laureates C a T f t p c w t c i h m o w o l h c h h a o e i r w m h e a o o s a l B M a w l n i r a

t m g e t e r a o a a y h r t a i c i v t n y g

d c r a p e c e t e f - d i t r n s i s i r h n - m o f e r a s

o , i

c i s g P n

r r p B

e t n o e s i t . s s , h h s v

n n t B . h r r e i t R

c s t t i c H t e e o u d c r

h o k

e d a t o w w i r s

o e e h s n r c n l ; t i i m m t

l e a

t t l h n e s e t t u l i s t . h x

r g d

;

s b s r o o w

t i n H

y e t r

s a e n u n t h

, o a t

e t

a h

o a a e m u o o a o a n e h

r l n

u g n d e

f d r o d

d w o

t e a e

s i s

b u d t n n i y o t h p e o n e h r o

o a t e e h e

m y l e e

t r f e N

i j o i u y n

d u n o

B r i i n

o p l r d n a C s g e n l d u r b r y o t y t

. o o o o i e

d o e t B f w t u

t e r , w c w i a l

h w h r T c f n r n d u i l n w l e u o

s g t e

a e e e t i h s o B g a t p h L

t r u h a

i c c

s s

t h e

d t e n a w t o e i f o l s e t s t a i t h y L

o d

e s i r d i s c r e

a o o i l o

l t a e t u

o . i t q

t o e

r i r a h

b s r h n h n h o b a T l i

v r u a a l

l s l

r e r e

a l

n o e l d

r r h a e o r a v o e I e b a

c v r r u

’ y l

e i s f t m g C o

c s e r w e e t e

a r h

e t

t h I t a y k a t

t H t y d o

l r o u i i

o p e i i w

b e s a m t v ,

z p i o t l

r o s h r r m r l e . a w m e a e n i e b e e n e

e l n n h i e e

n r w e d c d e r e i g a s m o e o g u

c n s h - a ,

v n

a e t

h t r n r

s c e

e a p

i r n i y

y a

d t o e b p t i s w l p t t s r

a a t

e a

a b

h v f o r o u o l s i i t

i i r n s e

e s s s e l

i t i e w r f s

r e o r o s n s h

n s i t

u e r i m e s t c h c

m y l n n

n s

J h d d r y o i p a r

o p i b

e g o o . s , v e

o n

e R

w t f l e

o l h i

s e h s I i f s s s y f

f r s t n o i r n

n f i e i a h

. i n i s e n i e I t t n o i d

t e g o

s a t a h h o a T g

a o J

r e h e r i e

n e h t r n c s

. m n a t r m h

a s h i e c

w r

i o y h B t t v

e v t c m o h

i e h r h l

a m l K t

e a

a y r o u u a i

f e i e

e n s a r e

f m g o r f n r l s

p r a o

t n e

e e n l e h A p I s t d I u

i i c i n e

d m x s l v b s s n s l e m

i i g a a r i e n y c o d

n l ,

s r i e , d L o

i l t r l

a d

e l s a i t h t

i e i a S . e v m r s f i t o A y h i e e e r t b

t n i n i . t s u t o n c v n y r m l

d i

i r h a e c s t c n o n e ’ o u

p a g e a s o n e e a

u e g d n f l r r , s d l d a

t , . .

s r y u g N

v i i

u h t o t

I d n T i i

n w

i Y h r h i

n h c s r o u e S h o s e g t e i o a e a

s e i h w w h b g i h d t o a I n s . l

h s l h r o e t i e

a a n c

l t m n

e e

W h E

e - s n

b t c w l t a

g l h c e f e h n

f e u a

a o s h u B o

u g , r e a B g i c j f l l

n e f a l n i r e o a t 2 a u t r

t o l d t r

d t t t a d

a s o 0 c z r t t m

i e i h h r

n n a a h h h t e g n i e 1 k t s a a i i i n n d g d o e e e e e 2 s s s c s s t l l From "The Municipal Gallery Revisited” W.B.Yeats