Skip to main content
Collections Menu
Do Gong 10
Do Gong 10

Do Gong 10

Artist (b. 1952)
Date1993
MediumOil and acrylic on canvas
DimensionsEach: 162 x 130 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased, 1994. © Michael Mulcahy.
Object number1832
DescriptionJourneys both to far off places and of the mind are prevailing themes in Michael Mulcahy's work. On completion of his studies at the Crawford School of Art, Cork and the National College of Art and Design, he travelled in 1973 to northwest Africa where he lived and worked for two years. Since then he has spent several periods abroad including in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Mali and India. His sensitivity to and immersion in the colours and psyche of the landscape and cultures he encounters has found eloquent expression in his painting. In 1991 he travelled to South Korea where he spent a year in the Monastery of Ck'uksoam. There he was the student of Su-an Sumin, a renowned Buddhist poet and painter.

Do-gong 10 is part of a series of seventeen similarly named, richly coloured and evocative paintings from this period. Meaning 'Empty Island, Clear Sky', Do-gong was the name given by Su-an to Mulcahy. In order to rid his mind of unnecessary distractions, Mulcahy was set the rigorous task of writing his name ten thousand times and of drawing circles day after day. The swirling, vibrant brushstrokes of Do-gong 10 placed against a glowing background are suggestive of a spiritually animated oriental landscape.


On View
Not on view
Robert Louis Stevenson
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
1887
The Ninth Hour
Mainie Jellett
1941
Abstract
Evie Sydney Hone
1925-1930
Composition
Evie Sydney Hone
Composition
Mainie Jellett
1930
The Family
Peter Behan
before 1968
Portrait of Miss Iris Tree
Augustus Edwin John
c. 1912 - 1914
Miss Maud Gonne
Sarah Henrietta Purser
1890
The Sail Boat
Berthe Morisot
1887
Sketch of a Boat with Reddish Sail
Sarah Cecilia Harrison
before 1915
Eva Gonzalès
Édouard Manet
1870