DOCSLIB.ORG

Conor Bio.Pages

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Conor Bio.Pages conor’s corner 'All my life I have been completely absorbed with affecon in the acvies of the Belfast people...Being a Belfast man myself it has been my ambion to reveal the Spiritual Character of its people in all vigour, in all its senses of life, in all its variety, in all its passion, humanity and humour...' About William Conor The public sculpture at Conor’s Corner on the Shankill Road/Northumberland Road marks the work of the celebrated Belfast painter William Conor OBE RUA RHA ROI PRUA (1881-1968), who was born in nearby Forngale Street on the 9th May 1881 to a riveter/wrought iron worker. His music teacher Louis Mantell noced his talent and commended him to the Belfast Government School of Art (later Belfast College of Art) which he aVended from 1894 to 1904. Conor subsequently worked as a lithographer and commercial poster arst at David Allan & Sons Ltd. for five years. In 1910 he became member of the Belfast Arts Society and subsequently served on the commiee. Around this me he changed his name from the anglicised ’Connor’ to ‘Conor’ and, while being deeply rooted in working-class loyalism, he became closely associated with the evolving Celc Revival movement of the me. 'Conor (originally 'Connor') was a working-class Protestant who had Gaelicized his name in response to his encounter with the Celc Revival in Belfast at the start of the century.' (Barber, 2013) During World War I, he painted scenes in ammunion factories and soldiers leaving Belfast for the front. In this period, he also spent me working on the Blasket Islands, Co. Kerry and in Paris. While living in London in the 1920s, he was close to John Lavery and Augustus John and the Café Royal circle. His work developed rapidly during this period and he consolidated his unique style. In 1921 he received his first major commission to paint the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament. His recognion grew and when the Belfast Arts Society transformed into the new Ulster Academy of Arts, he was elected as one of the first nine academicians and shortly ader became the first Irish arst to become member of the Royal Society of Oil Painters. Since 1938 he was an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin and became full member in 1946. From 1957-1964 he served as President of the Royal Ulster Academy. During his prolific working life, Conor occupied various studios in Belfast, including one in Chichester Street and his purpose built studio in Stranmillis opposite the Ulster Museum, now the ‘Conor’ restaurant. More than 160 of his painngs were brought together for a large retrospecve in Belfast in 1964, when he also received a honorary degree from Queens University, Belfast. William Conor died on 5th February 1968 ader a fall at his home in Salisbury Street, aged 86. According to his close friend, the writer and poet John Hewi, Conor considered himself a ’portraist, landscapist and genre painter' rather than 'the painter of working class life’. His unique, vibrant style is characterised by the happiness and joyfulness of his subjects, which sets his work disnctly apart from other social realist painters of the period such as Käthe Kollwitz. 'As regards Conor's posion in the local art world, his images of the working classes made him unique among arsts in the North; indeed, few painters in the whole of Ireland pursued such genre themes, with the excepon of Jack B. Yeats and Paul Henry...' (Black, 2002) Further Reading: Barber, F.; Art in Ireland Since 1910, London; Reakon Books, 2013 Black, E. (contributor); Irish Arts Review Yearbook, 2002 Shoddy, T.; Diconary of Tweneth Century Irish Arsts, 2002 Wilson, J. C.; Conor 1881-1968: The Life and Work of an Ulster Arst, Belfast, 1981.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Evaluation of the Building Peace Through the Arts: Re-Imaging Communities Programme
    Evaluation of the Building Peace through the Arts: Re-Imaging Communities Programme Final Report January 2016 CONTENTS 1. BUILDING PEACE THROUGH THE ARTS ................................................... 5 1.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 5 1.2. Operational Context ............................................................................................. 5 1.3. Building Peace through the Arts ......................................................................... 6 1.4. Evaluation Methodology ....................................................................................... 8 1.5. Document Contents .............................................................................................. 8 2. PROGRAMME APPLICATIONS & AWARDS ............................................ 10 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Stage One Applications and Awards ................................................................ 10 2.3 Stage Two Applications and Awards ................................................................ 11 2.4 Project Classification .......................................................................................... 12 2.5 Non-Progression of Enquiries and Awards ...................................................... 16 2.6 Discussion ...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Designer and Modernist
    DESIGNER AND MODERNIST THE IMPACT AND INFLUENCE OF LINEN DESIGN ON THE WORK OF COLIN MIDDLETON One volume DICKON HALL School of Art and Design of Ulster University Ph.D. March 2019 I confirm that the word count of this thesis is less than 100,000 words. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Abbreviations iv Timeline – 1870-1945 1946-1985 Introduction 1 Chapter One – Charles Collins Middleton 45 Chapter Two, Part One – John Hewitt 79 Chapter Two, Part Two – John Hewitt (continued) 112 Chapter Three – John Middleton Murry 149 Chapter Four – Victor Waddington 180 Chapter Five – Colin Middleton 220 Conclusion 263 Bibliography 272 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Karen Fleming and Dr Joseph McBrinn, for their support, advice and encouragement throughout the research and writing of this PhD thesis, as well as Dr Justin Magee and many other staff at Ulster University for their guidance and assistance at every stage. I am very grateful to Kim Mawhinney for giving me such generous access to the Colin Middleton Archive held by NMNI and also to their collection of his works, and to her colleagues at the Ulster Museum, Anne Stewart, Anna Liesching and Mary Dornan, who have been so helpful. I would also like to acknowledge the Deputy Keeper of the Records, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Many other people have kindly assisted with my research in various ways and I would like to thank them and to apologise to any whom I have inadvertently left out: Nelson Bell, Terry Boyd, John Breakey, David Britton and Karen Reihill, Anne de Buck, Chris Caldwell, Professor Mike Catto, Dr Riann Coulter, David Foster, Dr Brian Kennedy, Sean Kissane, Dr Paul Larmour, David Lennon, Linda Logue, Emer Lynch, Eamonn Mallie, Charlie Minter, Shelagh Parkes, Dr Jackie Reilly, Alison Smith, Claire Walsh and Ian Whyte.
    [Show full text]
  • John Hewitt: Creating a Canon of Ulster Art
    John Hewitt: Creating a Canon of Ulster Art Riann Coulter In 1943 Northern Ireland was at war. For four years the population had weathered the hardships of rationing and evacuation. Yet war also brought a degree of prosperity to the Province’s industrial economy and with the involvement in a global conflict and influx of foreign servicemen, came a glimpse of the world beyond Ulster’s shores.1 By the end of 1943, the air-raids had ceased and a new spirit of optimism was palpable. This spirit was particularly prevalent in the arts where there was a growing pride in local culture. Reflecting on the period the poet, critic and curator, John Hewitt (1907 – 87) concluded ‘never before in my lifetime had the Arts seemed so lively and exciting. The war was far away and, since travel was severely restricted, we were left to cultivate our own gardens’.2 This essay explores the Hewitt’s role in attempting to articulate a distinctive artistic and cultural identity for Ulster from the middle of the twentieth century. Focusing on Hewitt’s interpretation of the visual arts, it examines the ways in which he acted as a curator and advocate for particular artists who he felt embodied his sense of a regional style of art for Ulster. During the period of the war, artists and writers in Belfast were gathering to promote their own work and the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), the first public body dedicated to the arts on the island of Ireland, was established.3 Central to CEMA’s visual arts committee and taking an active role in many of the artist led initiatives, Hewitt became the spokesman for a generation of progressive artists whom he believed could create a distinctive modern art for Ulster.
    [Show full text]
  • Sotheby's Press Release
    London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Matthew Floris | [email protected] | Mitzi Mina | [email protected] Sotheby’s Annual Irish Art Sale to be Led by Exceptional Group of Works from the Renowned Collection of Sir Michael Smurfit which Previously Furnished The K Club and his Private Residence in Co Kildare Over 50 Items to be Offered in a Series of Sales to be Held Between September 2020 and 2021 LONDON, 7 June 2020 – Sotheby’s annual Irish Art sale will be led by an exceptional group of works from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit. Over thirty years, Sir Michael assembled an array of Irish artworks to furnish his K Club luxury golf and hotel resort, and private residence, in Co Kildare. From the very beginning, he sought out the best examples available on the market, to the extent that his collection features not only many of Ireland’s most famous artists, but also some of their finest paintings. His passion for Jack B. Yeats, John Lavery and William Orpen is reflected in the number of significant works by these artists, and several of the pictures by Yeats have become well known through ‘The Yeats Room’ at The K Club, where they took pride of place. The collection is distinguished further by Louis le Brocquy’s Travelling Woman with Newspaper, one of the artist’s most significant works, and singular representations that are also marked by their quality, such as William Conor’s depiction of the Dublin Horse Show at the Royal Dublin Society and Frederick William Burton’s A Blind Girl at a Holy Well from 1839, which was engraved by The Royal Irish Art Union and became one of the most popular engraved images of its time.
    [Show full text]
  • Research Paper on John Luke
    Research document on John Luke by Seth Linder for Arts for All 1 Contents Item Page number Introduction 3 Background 4 Growing up in Belfast 5 Working life 9 The School of Art 10 The York Street Mill 11 The Slade School of Fine Art London 13 Life as an artist 14 Belfast City Hall mural 18 Other murals 21 John Luke the man 24 John Luke the legacy 24 John Luke - Legacy Programme 25 Sources 27 2 Introduction This paper is about North Belfast artist John Luke (1906 – 1975), whose work was celebrated in a major exhibition at the Ulster Museum in 2012/13. Arts for All would like to sincerely thank all those who contributed to the paper, in particular Neville and Pat McKee, Dr Joseph McBrinn, Kim Mawhinney, Dr John Lynch, Robert Heslip and Robert Corbett. The most high profile legacy of John Luke’s remarkable career can found in the entrance hall of Belfast City Hall. A mural, 15ft by 31ft, it is, by any measure, a most significant achievement. Working, by his own standards, at quicksilver pace, John completed the mural between January 1951 and April 1952. Commissioned to commemorate the Festival of Britain, the subject matter reflects much of John Luke’s own life. The mural depicts a figure resembling Sir Arthur Chichester surrounded by symbols of the industries that became synonymous with Belfast, two of which John himself would personally experience. The linen industry is reflected in strips of linen laid on the ground and a weaver’s handloom, while the hull of a ship represents Belfast’s historic shipbuilding industry.
    [Show full text]
  • Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss
    Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition : WW2 War Pictures by British Artists Morley College London, 61 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7HT Friday 28 October - Wednesday 23 November 2016 First published in 2016 by Liss Llewellyn Fine Art ISBN: 978-0-9930884-2-1 Text © Elaine Andrews, Margaret Bear, Brian Foss & Paul Liss Photography: Glynn Clarkson, Pierre Emmanuel Coste, Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd & Petra van der Wal Design and Typesetting by David Maes Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss Printed by Zenith Media, July 2016 A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S This project has been hugely enhanced by the participation of Dr Brian Foss, a leading authority on the art of WW2. His introductory essay and 400-name check-list of War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) artists (Appendix I1) are an invaluable source of reference. Elaine Andrew’s essay (Appendix III) provides an account of Morley College London’s history during WW2, setting the historic scene for this exhibition. Margaret Bear has contributed an essay on the fascinating (if little known) ICI ‘Portraits of an Industry’, a scheme inspired by the WAAC initiative which likewise benefited from the expertise of Kenneth Clark. In the creation of this project Liss Llewellyn Fine Art has been fortunate in being able to call on the skills of a huge team of colleagues who have kindly given their expertise. Andrew Cormack and Ian Jack have been especially generous in helping with the catalogue notes.
    [Show full text]
  • Royal Hibernian Academy Catalogue of Papers 2011
    Royal Hibernian Academy – Catalogue of Papers. Catalogued and archived by Dr Éimear O’Connor, TRIARC-Irish art research centre, TCD. Reference ordered as follows: RHA number, article number and box number – some boxes may have a file number after the box number. Please reference as set out in ‘RHA reference’ column below. See top left corner on reverse of each/ group of articles for reference number. Article number. Description of article. RHA reference. Royal Hibernian Academy Catalogue of Papers 2011 (The RHA archive catalogue will be updated in 2012) For access to the archive please contact the RHA. Material in the RHA archive may be cross-referenced with files held in various locations, for example; NIVAL @ NCAD; TRIARC-Irish Art Research Centre, TCD; the CSIA @ NGI; the RIA; the RDS library and archives; TCD MSS; School of History and Archives, UCD; NLI; NMI; the National Archives and various repositories around the country – local libraries, County Council records etc. Check the website of the Irish Georgian Society for lists of PhD theses undertaken in Irish universities. Please turn over for brief box contents description, pp. 2-6. 1 Royal Hibernian Academy – Catalogue of Papers. Catalogued and archived by Dr Éimear O’Connor, TRIARC-Irish art research centre, TCD. Reference ordered as follows: RHA number, article number and box number – some boxes may have a file number after the box number. Please reference as set out in ‘RHA reference’ column below. See top left corner on reverse of each/ group of articles for reference number. Article number. Description of article. RHA reference.
    [Show full text]
  • Irish Artists Go to War 1914-1918
    In the Shadow of Centenaries: Irish Artists go to War 1914-1918 Johnson, N. (2016). In the Shadow of Centenaries: Irish Artists go to War 1914-1918. In D. Drozdzewski, S. De Nardi, & E. Waterton (Eds.), Memory, Place and Identity: Commemoration and remembrance of war and conflict (pp. 224-251). Routlege. https://www.routledge.com/Memory-Place-and-Identity-Commemoration-and- remembrance-of-war-and-conflict/Drozdzewski-De-Nardi-Waterton/p/book/9781138923218 Published in: Memory, Place and Identity: Commemoration and remembrance of war and conflict Document Version: Peer reviewed version Queen's University Belfast - Research Portal: Link to publication record in Queen's University Belfast Research Portal Publisher rights Copyright 2016 Routledge. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Queen's University Belfast Research Portal is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The Research Portal is Queen's institutional repository that provides access to Queen's research output. Every effort has been made to ensure that content in the Research Portal does not infringe any person's rights, or applicable UK laws. If you discover content in the Research Portal that you believe breaches copyright or violates
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry in Northern Ireland and the Second World War
    Durham E-Theses On 'the Edge of a Crumbling Continent': Poetry in Northern Ireland and the Second World War SMITH, AMY How to cite: SMITH, AMY (2014) On 'the Edge of a Crumbling Continent': Poetry in Northern Ireland and the Second World War, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10945/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 1 On ‘the Edge of a Crumbling Continent’: Poetry in Northern Ireland and the Second World War Amy Beth Smith Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of English Studies Durham University 2014 2 Abstract This thesis proposes that nineteen forties Northern Ireland was not a cultural desert, as has often been assumed. It draws on an extensive range of neglected archival and published sources to argue that a diverse and vibrant community of poets, united by shared political and aesthetic interests, formed in Belfast during the Second World War.
    [Show full text]
  • National Gallery of Ireland Annual Report 2012
    Annual Report 2012 Annual Report National Gallery of Ireland National Gailearaí Násiúnta na hÉireann | Tuarascáil Bhliantúil 2012 National Gallery of Ireland | Annual Report 2012 Gailearaí Násiúnta nahÉireann Násiúnta Gailearaí Tuarascáil Bhliantúil 2012 Bhliantúil Tuarascáil www.nationalgallery.ie e National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) was founded by an Act of Parliament in and opened to the public in . It houses over , items: over , oil paintings, and some , works in dierent media including watercolours, drawings, prints and sculpture. e works range in date from the fourteenth century to the present day and broadly represent the development of the major European schools of painting: British, Dutch, Flemish, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Netherlandish, complemented by a comprehensive collection of Irish art. e Gallery also holds the most extensive research collections relating to the national and international development of the visual arts, which are housed in the NGI Art Library, Centre for the Study of Irish Art, Yeats Archive and NGI Archive. To accommodate the collection, the NGI has been extended over the years; in (Milltown Wing), in (Beit Wing) and in (Millennium Wing). A major refurbishment of the historic Dargan and air. thabhairt a cuairt le iontach Milltown Wings on Merrion Square is currently underway and scheduled áit mar cinn chun hÉireann na Náisiúnta Gailearaí chuireann a bhealach to be completed in . ar taispeáint ar chur a agus orbairt a léirmhíniú, a sin ealaín an agus Is é cuspóir Ghailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann ná aire a thabhairt d’ealaín d’ealaín thabhairt a aire ná hÉireann na Náisiúnta Ghailearaí cuspóir é Is M R e purpose of the National Gallery of Ireland is to care for, interpret, develop and showcase art in a way that makes the National Gallery of .
    [Show full text]