Micheal Farrell

Micheal Farrell was born in Kells in the Irish midlands and studied at St. Martin’s college of Art and Colchester College of Art in London from 1957 to 1961. From a very early stage in his career he was recognised as one of the most important Irish artists of the younger generation, winning many prizes and scholarships. His Early work was figurative, of an often lyrical quality, but during the sixties he produced consistently abstract work characterised by the use of a variety of geometric shapes in a combination of hard-edge and soft-edge compositions. In 1971 he moved to Paris where he began his Presse series of visually engaging works which presented a gigantically magnified image of liquid being squeezed in a sort of a press. Initially the liquid appeared to be juice but as the artist became increasingly concerned with the worsening political situation in Northern Ireland it was transformed into a representation of blood. Subsequently Farrell reverted to a figurative style which he felt allowed him greater freedom in which to express himself and make statements through sarcasm, puns, wit and literary and historic innuendo.