Beschreibung:

Artist: John Brian Vallely (b.1941) Title: Three Musicians Signature: signed with initials lower right and titled verso Medium: oil on canvas Size: 127½ x 153½cm (50.2 x 60.4in) Framed Size: 148 x 174.5cm (58.3 x 68.7in) Provenance: Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin (label verso); Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} John Brian Vallely is indelibly associated with paintings of musicians, but not in the sense of conventional portraiture. In fact, often in his work you cannot even see the faces of the subjects to any meaningful degree - sometimes they're just a blu... Read more John Brian Vallely is indelibly associated with paintings of musicians, but not in the sense of conventional portraiture. In fact, often in his work you cannot even see the faces of the subjects to any meaningful degree - sometimes they're just a blur. Always, they are in a world of their own, transported by the experience of playing. And that is what he sets out to convey. As it happens, he is himself a traditional Irish musician, and he is not so much depicting something from the outside as visualising how it feels from the inside, and not in an egotistical way. The concentration of the musicians is there in the set of their bodies, the dextrous movement of their hands, and the music is there in the founts of colour that flow thickly, generously and dynamically across the surface of each painting, mixing, mingling and separating just as the instruments do. The same is true, incidentally, of another of Vallely's passions: sporting activities. He has never done things by halves and numbers running and boxing among his past athletic endeavours, apart altogether from cycling - which he has tackled vividly as a subject in painting, as well as Gaelic football. An Armagh artist, Vallely studied in Edinburgh, and one feels art only really clicked with him when he found a way of dovetailing artistic technique with his other passions, musical and athletic. All three areas demand a similar engagement for him: physicality, hand-eye coordination, and a personal understanding of what is involved at every level. It's worth noting that most of his paintings celebrate communal, collective pursuits. Aidan Dunne, March 2019