80
Rowan Gillespie (b.1953)
Estimate:
€20,000 - €30,000
Sold
€30,000
Live Auction
Important Irish Art - 26 November 2018
ARTIST
Rowan Gillespie (b.1953)
Size
77 by 12 by 12in. (195.6 by 30.5 by 30.5cm)
Description
Title: LADDER OF LIFE, 1988
Note: Dimensions of base: 6.5 by 12 by 12in. Ladder of Life is part of an important body of work from the 1980s, which takes inspiration from the Greek philosopher Palamas. Palamas believed that there are those who see a light in the sky and spend their lives building a ladder of thistles and thorns towards that light; again and again it breaks but they lash it back together slowly reaching closer to that illusive light that they know full well they will never reach. Ladder of Life shows a male figure clinging to the top of a ladder made of irregular shaped branch-like rungs bound together in a manner reminiscent of the crucifix. Elongated, distinctive figures and tall elegant artworks are a hallmark of Gillespie’s oeuvre. Other works such as The Pillar, 1986 or The Philosopher’s Column, 1987 offer variations on a similar theme in that decade. An earlier example from this series [The Ladder of Life, 1982; edition of 3] can be seen in Rowan Gillespie, Looking for Orion (O’Brien Press, Dublin 2007, p.62) and is cited as the genesis of a major US collection and the beginning of a fruitful relationship between the artist and his Irish-American patron Martin Hart. In the year following the execution of the present work, Gillespie chose to focus on site specific work, producing some of the best-known examples of public sculpture in Ireland including The Blackrock Dolmen, The Kiss, The Age of Freedom (all in Dublin), The Cashel Dancers (Cashel), W.B. Yeats (Sligo), The Singer (Limerick City). Almost ten years later his celebrated Famine, located on Custom House Quay, Dublin - and donated to the Irish people by Mrs Norma Smurfit - would cement his place in Irish art history with his powerful portrayal of seven victims of the Famine. We are grateful to the artist for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Note: Dimensions of base: 6.5 by 12 by 12in. Ladder of Life is part of an important body of work from the 1980s, which takes inspiration from the Greek philosopher Palamas. Palamas believed that there are those who see a light in the sky and spend their lives building a ladder of thistles and thorns towards that light; again and again it breaks but they lash it back together slowly reaching closer to that illusive light that they know full well they will never reach. Ladder of Life shows a male figure clinging to the top of a ladder made of irregular shaped branch-like rungs bound together in a manner reminiscent of the crucifix. Elongated, distinctive figures and tall elegant artworks are a hallmark of Gillespie’s oeuvre. Other works such as The Pillar, 1986 or The Philosopher’s Column, 1987 offer variations on a similar theme in that decade. An earlier example from this series [The Ladder of Life, 1982; edition of 3] can be seen in Rowan Gillespie, Looking for Orion (O’Brien Press, Dublin 2007, p.62) and is cited as the genesis of a major US collection and the beginning of a fruitful relationship between the artist and his Irish-American patron Martin Hart. In the year following the execution of the present work, Gillespie chose to focus on site specific work, producing some of the best-known examples of public sculpture in Ireland including The Blackrock Dolmen, The Kiss, The Age of Freedom (all in Dublin), The Cashel Dancers (Cashel), W.B. Yeats (Sligo), The Singer (Limerick City). Almost ten years later his celebrated Famine, located on Custom House Quay, Dublin - and donated to the Irish people by Mrs Norma Smurfit - would cement his place in Irish art history with his powerful portrayal of seven victims of the Famine. We are grateful to the artist for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Medium
bronze on black marble base
Signature
signed [Rowan] and dated at base
Provenance
signed [Rowan] and dated at base
