Jeune Aveugle avec Chouette
Basil Rakoczi
1908 - 1979
JEUNE AVEUGLE AVEC CHOUETTE
signed l.l.: Rakoczi; also numbered, signed, dated '56 and titled on the reverse
oil on canvas
100 by 60cm., 39¼ by 23½in.
Basil Rakoczi and the White Stag Group made a significant contribution to Irish art when they arrived in Dublin in 1940, bringing a radical avant-garde outlook unknown to the artistic landscape of Ireland at that time. The importance of their arrival had been largely overlooked in Irish art history until the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition dedicated to the White Stag Group in 2005.
The defining feature of the group was, as S. B. Kennedy wrote, their ‘combined interest in the artistic avant-garde with an enthusiasm for the newly emerging discipline of psychotherapy’ (IMMA, White Stag Group exh. cat., 2005, p.13). Rakoczi, of Hungarian-Irish parentage and born in London, moved to Ireland at the outbreak of World War II with like-minded friends Herbrand Ingouville-Williams and Kenneth Hall. There the trio formed the White Stag Group to promote the advancement of subjectivity in psychological analysis and art. Their first exhibition was held at Rakoczi’s flat at 34 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin to critical success, and they continued to exhibit throughout the war years with various artists joining them, notably Mainie Jellett. Their most influential exhibition was their Exhibition of Subjective Art in 1944, for which the leading English art critic Herbert Read wrote the catalogue introduction, praising the ‘fresh vigour’ of the works, which he saw as being part of ‘the main stream of European culture’. Included in the show was Patrick Scott who had just emerged on the artistic scene, described by Rakoczi as, ‘the most original, delightful and best artists here in Ireland’ (Rakoczi, Journal, updated entry, 1943) and Hall as, ‘by far the most gifted painter I have ever known’ (Hall to Lucy Wertheim, letter 11 January 1944).
The group disbanded in 1945, following the end of the War and the untimely death of Ingouville-Williams from illness and Hall's suicide the following year. However during their short period in Ireland, they swiftly ingratiated themselves in the Dublin community and their lasting impact was to bring a fresh perspective to a conservative art world. They ‘paved the way for a broader consensus in Irish painting’ and a more liberal artistic atmosphere in the 1950s and 60s under which a new generation of artists could flourish (S.B. Kennedy, op. cit., p.43).
In the present work, the strong pyschological element - the blind man and the owl - and the abstract forms clearly demonstrate Rakoczi's European heritage, absorption of post-war expressionism and his pervading interest in creative psychology.
Jeune Aveugle avec Chouette
Basil Rakoczi
1908 - 1979
JEUNE AVEUGLE AVEC CHOUETTE
signed l.l.: Rakoczi; also numbered, signed, dated '56 and titled on the reverse
oil on canvas
100 by 60cm., 39¼ by 23½in.
Basil Rakoczi and the White Stag Group made a significant contribution to Irish art when they arrived in Dublin in 1940, bringing a radical avant-garde outlook unknown to the artistic landscape of Ireland at that time. The importance of their arrival had been largely overlooked in Irish art history until the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition dedicated to the White Stag Group in 2005.
The defining feature of the group was, as S. B. Kennedy wrote, their ‘combined interest in the artistic avant-garde with an enthusiasm for the newly emerging discipline of psychotherapy’ (IMMA, White Stag Group exh. cat., 2005, p.13). Rakoczi, of Hungarian-Irish parentage and born in London, moved to Ireland at the outbreak of World War II with like-minded friends Herbrand Ingouville-Williams and Kenneth Hall. There the trio formed the White Stag Group to promote the advancement of subjectivity in psychological analysis and art. Their first exhibition was held at Rakoczi’s flat at 34 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin to critical success, and they continued to exhibit throughout the war years with various artists joining them, notably Mainie Jellett. Their most influential exhibition was their Exhibition of Subjective Art in 1944, for which the leading English art critic Herbert Read wrote the catalogue introduction, praising the ‘fresh vigour’ of the works, which he saw as being part of ‘the main stream of European culture’. Included in the show was Patrick Scott who had just emerged on the artistic scene, described by Rakoczi as, ‘the most original, delightful and best artists here in Ireland’ (Rakoczi, Journal, updated entry, 1943) and Hall as, ‘by far the most gifted painter I have ever known’ (Hall to Lucy Wertheim, letter 11 January 1944).
The group disbanded in 1945, following the end of the War and the untimely death of Ingouville-Williams from illness and Hall's suicide the following year. However during their short period in Ireland, they swiftly ingratiated themselves in the Dublin community and their lasting impact was to bring a fresh perspective to a conservative art world. They ‘paved the way for a broader consensus in Irish painting’ and a more liberal artistic atmosphere in the 1950s and 60s under which a new generation of artists could flourish (S.B. Kennedy, op. cit., p.43).
In the present work, the strong pyschological element - the blind man and the owl - and the abstract forms clearly demonstrate Rakoczi's European heritage, absorption of post-war expressionism and his pervading interest in creative psychology.