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Lot Essay
Although born in Arklow, Co. Wicklow, George Campbell has always been considered as a Northern artist owing to his Belfast upbringing and sympathy for the other 'Northern' artists. According to John Hewitt what makes an Ulster artist is 'not primarily a question of birth, blood or accent but rather the condition of being involved in Ulster life and landscape, and finding therein the material for one's art' (see The Hunter Gatherer: The Collection of George and Maura McClelland at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, London, 2005, p. 54). He began painting relatively late and 1943 saw him exhibit for the first time alongside his brother Arthur at Mol's Gallery in Belfast. Having made the decision that this was his calling, he threw himself into his art and worked prolifically throughout his life.
Photographs show George as a dapper young man complete with pencil-line moustache, a man of style and panache. This self-assured attitude is reflected in his art. He saw himself as a pioneer of sorts, in that he felt compelled to rebel against the accepted academia of the period. He strove to introduce modernist principles into provincial art and advocated experimentalism. He favoured abstraction but not at any cost, it had also to be intellectual. In his own words 'I think an abstract must be rich in content. It must have roots, no matter how far these roots go. It must have meaning. I am bored by a few simple shapes that convey nothing to me. Mondrian? He's just a bore'.
Still Life, complete with an unfinished landscape set on an easel, depicts a rural interior through a rich tapestry of colour and form. It was exhibited in 1955 at the Piccadilly Gallery in a joint show entitled 'George Campbell and Gerard Dillon'. The two men shared a mutual admiration and respect for one another's work and were life-long friends. In 1951 they had spent a summer, joined by James MacIntyre, at Dillon's cottage on Inishlacken, off the Connemara coast. The time spent learning from each other and sketching together was to be a productive experience for all concerned. By 1955, though, they were living in relative penury in London. Godfrey Pilkington, the Director of the Gallery (both then and now), commented that Dillon was 'living at the bottom of a lift shaft in a block of flats'. He recalls that this work was exeptional in that most of Campbell's exhibited canvases were of bullfighting scenes. This is owing to the fact that he had recently discovered a love of Spain and fully immersed himself in the culture, learning the language, exhibiting regularly and even learning to play flamenco guitar! Consequently, the Spanish government made him a Knight Commander of Spain at the age of sixty-one.
George Campbell was instrumental in creating a vibrant art community and contemporary style in Ulster. Through his bold pictures and revolutionary outlook, he made the unconventional acceptable at a time in Ireland when avant-garde concepts were in their infancy.
We are very grateful to Godfrey Pilkington for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Photographs show George as a dapper young man complete with pencil-line moustache, a man of style and panache. This self-assured attitude is reflected in his art. He saw himself as a pioneer of sorts, in that he felt compelled to rebel against the accepted academia of the period. He strove to introduce modernist principles into provincial art and advocated experimentalism. He favoured abstraction but not at any cost, it had also to be intellectual. In his own words 'I think an abstract must be rich in content. It must have roots, no matter how far these roots go. It must have meaning. I am bored by a few simple shapes that convey nothing to me. Mondrian? He's just a bore'.
Still Life, complete with an unfinished landscape set on an easel, depicts a rural interior through a rich tapestry of colour and form. It was exhibited in 1955 at the Piccadilly Gallery in a joint show entitled 'George Campbell and Gerard Dillon'. The two men shared a mutual admiration and respect for one another's work and were life-long friends. In 1951 they had spent a summer, joined by James MacIntyre, at Dillon's cottage on Inishlacken, off the Connemara coast. The time spent learning from each other and sketching together was to be a productive experience for all concerned. By 1955, though, they were living in relative penury in London. Godfrey Pilkington, the Director of the Gallery (both then and now), commented that Dillon was 'living at the bottom of a lift shaft in a block of flats'. He recalls that this work was exeptional in that most of Campbell's exhibited canvases were of bullfighting scenes. This is owing to the fact that he had recently discovered a love of Spain and fully immersed himself in the culture, learning the language, exhibiting regularly and even learning to play flamenco guitar! Consequently, the Spanish government made him a Knight Commander of Spain at the age of sixty-one.
George Campbell was instrumental in creating a vibrant art community and contemporary style in Ulster. Through his bold pictures and revolutionary outlook, he made the unconventional acceptable at a time in Ireland when avant-garde concepts were in their infancy.
We are very grateful to Godfrey Pilkington for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.