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You are > Home > Renowned Claremorris artist exhibits in Dublin
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Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Renowned Claremorris artist exhibits in Dublin
By: Majella Loftus
The works of a world renowned Claremorris sculptor have gone on exhibit in Dublin. Born in the Mayo town in 1930, Edward Delaney is best known for his public commissions for the Irish Government which include the Wolfe Tone Memorial in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, the Thomas Davis Memorial and a significant famine memorial.
The Royal Hibernian Academy in 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2 have decided to acknowledge the extraordinary work of Mr Delaney and have opened a sculptural exhibition of his works which will be on display until January 9.
Mr Delaney studied in NCAD in Dublin after being educated in Claremorris and then travelled to Munich, Bonn and Rome after being awarded scholarships by the West German and Italian governments. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1959 and 1961.
His sculptures are held in important public collections all over Ireland and further afield. He was awarded the Arts council prize for sculpture (1962) and its scolarship for sculpture and bronze casting in 1964 and the RHA Award for a sculpture of distiction in bronze (1991).
This will be the first chance in over a decade to view a representative selection of his work. Edward Delaney is one of the most celebrated Irish sculptures of the second half of the twentieth century. Trained in Germany in the 1950’s, his brand of European modernism was without context in 1960’s Dublin.
Imbued with that aesthetic tradition and the experience of living and studying in post war Germany, Delaney’s work seized on vital and fundamental imagery. Working in bronze in the lost wax method Delaney’s figures attempt a seamless union of form, material and content.
Delaney is best known today for the two major monuments in Dublin, the Wolf Tone Memorial, 1967, on the North East corner of St. Stephens Green and the Thomas Davis Memorial 1966, on the median opposite Trinity College. Both monuments show a marked departure for their time. Their abstraction and expressionism, the naturism and their egalitarianism reflect the new sense of confidence in the nation.
Delaney brought much of these qualities into his studio work and this exhibition uses a concentrated selection of his bronzes from the sixties to aid a review of his oeuvre. There will be five large scale works including the Figure of Cuchulain and the Great Hunger and Forms (Private Collection). Smaller works include Bather, The Piper and Bird Alighting.
Two programmes will also be shown as part of the exhibition: Aisling Gheal Edward Delaney featuring Delaney and his daughter Catriona sculpting and a piece from 1963 showing Delaney casting a bronze piece.
An illustrated catalogue accompanies this exhibition with an essay by art historian Roisîn Kennedy.
The exhibition has been aided throughout its organising stages by the enthusiasm, knowledge and archive of the sculptor’s son, Eamon Delaney. The exhibition will be closed from December 22 to January 2 for the festive season.
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