Number 3
Artist
Robert Ballagh
(b. 1943)
Date1977
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions180 x 232.5 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery.
Purchased, 1977.
Object number1437
Description'By the time I came to paint Number 3 in 1977 I had picked up a few skills along the way and was self confident enough to attempt portraits of members of my family; yet once again, I decided to avoid painting my own likeness. This refusal however had less to do with the accusation of vanity than the desire to say something about the status of the artist in Ireland. At the time I was struggling to earn a living as a painter so to mask my face with a book entitled 'How to Make your Art Commercial' seemed to be both ironic and strangely appropriate.' Robert Ballagh (2010)Robert Ballagh was one of the pioneering Pop Artists in the sixties when his witty, heraldic style of painting became extremely popular.
Ballagh often paints himself and his family, his house and his street, amking subtle comments on the condition of urban humanity in process. (Dorothy Walker , Hendricks Galleries)
On View
Not on view
