31
Mainie Jellett (1897-1944)
Estimate:
€25,000 - €35,000
Passed
Live Auction
Important Irish Art
Size
38 by 32in. (96.5 by 81.3cm)
Description
Title: COMPOSITION, 1936
Frame dimensions: 39 by 33in. (99.1 by 83.8cm)
Note: Composition 1936 was executed thirteen years after Mainie Jellett first exposed art audiences in Ireland to abstraction at the Society of Dublin Painters exhibition in autumn of 1923. It was widely condemned by critics at that time. This sizable oil on canvas example is characteristic of her style in the 1930s when she had moved away from the pure abstraction of the 1920s towards the semi-abstract figurative style seen here. Although the title does not indicate a religious subject matter, elements of the composition - the central figure/s flanked harmoniously upper left and right by similar shapes and radiating line and colour - echo themes such as the crucifixion or the Madonna and child. Jellett and her friend, fellow artist Evie Hone, were both deeply religious people and the inclusion of this very familiar narrative in their oeuvre aided Irish audiences in their interpretation of this new visual language. By the end of the 1930s Jellett and her contemporaries had succeeded in making Modernism not only palatable to Irish audiences but relevant to the establishment which, under Éamon de Valera, understood the importance of being seen to be 'Modern'. In 1938 Jellett's work was selected to decorate the Irish Pavilion at the Glasgow World Fair and the following year in New York alongside Hone. Composition 1936 was painted just before this watershed moment in Jellet's career and in Irish art history. Adelle Hughes,November 2022For another example by Mainie Jellett and a concise biography see lot 32.
Frame dimensions: 39 by 33in. (99.1 by 83.8cm)
Note: Composition 1936 was executed thirteen years after Mainie Jellett first exposed art audiences in Ireland to abstraction at the Society of Dublin Painters exhibition in autumn of 1923. It was widely condemned by critics at that time. This sizable oil on canvas example is characteristic of her style in the 1930s when she had moved away from the pure abstraction of the 1920s towards the semi-abstract figurative style seen here. Although the title does not indicate a religious subject matter, elements of the composition - the central figure/s flanked harmoniously upper left and right by similar shapes and radiating line and colour - echo themes such as the crucifixion or the Madonna and child. Jellett and her friend, fellow artist Evie Hone, were both deeply religious people and the inclusion of this very familiar narrative in their oeuvre aided Irish audiences in their interpretation of this new visual language. By the end of the 1930s Jellett and her contemporaries had succeeded in making Modernism not only palatable to Irish audiences but relevant to the establishment which, under Éamon de Valera, understood the importance of being seen to be 'Modern'. In 1938 Jellett's work was selected to decorate the Irish Pavilion at the Glasgow World Fair and the following year in New York alongside Hone. Composition 1936 was painted just before this watershed moment in Jellet's career and in Irish art history. Adelle Hughes,November 2022For another example by Mainie Jellett and a concise biography see lot 32.
Condition
Cracking visible in places. One area of minor flaking visible on close inspection, centre. Some surface dust visible. Otherwise good condition.
Medium
oil on canvas
