Bystander
Artist
Rita Donagh
(born 1939)
Date1977
MediumOil and collage on canvas
Dimensions152 x 152 cm
ClassificationsCollage
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery.
Donated by the artist in memory of her mother, Mary Anne Farrell of Corrascoffey, County Leitrim, 2022.
© Rita Donagh.
Object number2153
DescriptionBorn in England into a family with strong Irish connections, Rita Donagh studied Fine Art at the University of Durham with Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton. Her early work reflects the influence of the American pop artist Andy Warhol, but from the 1970s onwards, she explored the impact of the Troubles in her work. Bystander is part of a body of work inspired by a photograph published in the Sunday Times in 1974. It depicted a victim of a Dublin car bombing whose body had been covered with newspapers by a newspaper seller. Donagh incorporated this poignant image into a number of paintings and drawings.
The combination of pencil, oil paint and collage elements seen in this work is characteristic of Donagh’s working method. Her work is distinctive for its combination of abstract and diagrammatic elements such as maps with figurative imagery.
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Evie Sydney Hone
