Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 12th November 2018

74 61 Patrick O’Reilly (b.1957) Pegasus (2007) signed, dated (20)’07 and numbered 1/1 unique bronze on steel base 85 x 168 x 62cm (33.5 x 66.1 x 24.4in) Provenance: De Vere’s, Irish Art Sale, Dublin, 14th May 2013, Lot 123; Private Collection €10,000-€15,000 (£8,928-£13,392) Kilkenny-born Patrick O’Reilly’s arrival on the artistic map came with a hugely ambitious show at the 1996 Galway Arts Festival. His witty, allegorical, mechanical sculptures accepted no bounds in terms of scale and aesthetics, mingling fine art with fair- ground. The decisive next step was the late Barry Flanagan’s advice to him to work in bronze. Where Flanagan identified with the hare as an animal alter ego, O’Reilly settled on the teddy bear, and he never looked back. Magic-realist bears in numerous guises have appeared all over in Ireland and internationally. Crows and horses have also preoccupied him and, here Pegasus, the winged horse, charged with the artist’s phenomenal energy.