In my quest to understand and appreciate modern art, I was told to check out the work of Hughie O'Donoghue. I must say I quite like his work but it is far easier to like work of this calibre than the abstract modern art that I am yet to connect with.
Hughie O'Donoghue is one of the most ambitious painters at work today. Often likened to Anselm Kiefer, his subjects are history, memory and myth. At the heart of his work is the reimagining of individual lives such as the hardship of itinerant Irish labourers or the experience of his father in the Second World War.
O'Donoghue's powerful figurative paintings and drawings often draw from the old Masters and have been compared to School of London painters such as Francis Bacon, but over the last decade photography has also played an increasingly important role. This has extended from the artist's initial use of found and documentary imagery to recent paintings where the painted image incorporates within its surface photographic compositions set up by the artist in the land around his studio in Ireland.
from James Hyman Gallery
