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I have just returned from viewing the magnificent paintings by Mick O'Dea which are on display in the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, under the name "Black and Tans"
Black and Tan emanates from an intensely rich research project the artist has undertaken. O’Dea has been delving into the national, official and unofficial, archives; disseminating information and images from history books, drawing and painting vast canvasses; remapping in digital the early historical photographs he has collected.
The most unusual finding from his research is the one that underpins this exhibition. O’Dea reveals how the official Irish Civil War was foreshadowed by the Irish men who aided and abetted the notorious Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence. The show is primarily concerned with the War of Independence from the time of the arrival of the Black and Tans in March 1920 up to the truce in July 1921.
The artist has drawn on the visual traces of the Irish past to create a radical intervention into how contemporary audiences and future generations remember war. The artist began some of these portraits by literally projecting the archival photographs onto vast canvases. Then he sketched the bodies and the uniforms and built the characters in charcoal before painting washes of acrylic colour into the frame.
Black and Tan by Mick O’Dea, with an accompanying essay by Catherine Morris, is at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Chancery Lane, Dublin 8 until April 3.
The last photo in this set is of the notorious "Cairo Gang" ( Their name, incidently had absolutely nothing to do with service in Egypt, but their habit of meeting in the "Cairo Cafe")
Black and Tan emanates from an intensely rich research project the artist has undertaken. O’Dea has been delving into the national, official and unofficial, archives; disseminating information and images from history books, drawing and painting vast canvasses; remapping in digital the early historical photographs he has collected.
The most unusual finding from his research is the one that underpins this exhibition. O’Dea reveals how the official Irish Civil War was foreshadowed by the Irish men who aided and abetted the notorious Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence. The show is primarily concerned with the War of Independence from the time of the arrival of the Black and Tans in March 1920 up to the truce in July 1921.
The artist has drawn on the visual traces of the Irish past to create a radical intervention into how contemporary audiences and future generations remember war. The artist began some of these portraits by literally projecting the archival photographs onto vast canvases. Then he sketched the bodies and the uniforms and built the characters in charcoal before painting washes of acrylic colour into the frame.
Black and Tan by Mick O’Dea, with an accompanying essay by Catherine Morris, is at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Chancery Lane, Dublin 8 until April 3.
The last photo in this set is of the notorious "Cairo Gang" ( Their name, incidently had absolutely nothing to do with service in Egypt, but their habit of meeting in the "Cairo Cafe")
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