Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 29th April 2019

122 98 Colin Davidson (b.1968) A Fall 2 (2016) signed, titled and dated 2016 verso oil on canvas 167.5 x 183cm (66 x 72in) Provenance: Private Collection €14,000-€18,000 ($15,730-$20,224) (£11,864-£15,254) Colin Davidson has become best known for his many large-scale portrait heads, virtuoso pieces of painting which combine almost photographic realism with vigorous, gestural brushwork. His list of sitters encompasses an extraordinary range of individuals and backgrounds: from poets Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley to the Queen and Brad Pitt. The latter painting prompted Time Magazine to have him paint Angela Merkel for their cover. But he never set out to be a portrait painter. Born in Belfast, he studied at the University of Ulster and went on to make work based on aerial views of the city. Then he painted shopfronts in the city, relishing the visual complexities of reflections. One day he made a painting of a friend, musician Duke Special. Glen Hansard happened to see the work and commis- sioned an album cover. Another project, Jerusalem, comprises 12 portraits making up a composite of the city’s varied population, and the 18 subjects of Silent Testimony are all individuals impacted by the Troubles. In 2016, in a change of tempo, Davidson made a number of nude studies. Ten of them were exhibited at the Oliver Sears Gallery as Ten Night Paintings. This contemptuous figure study from a related series is a dynamic work in which the figure in motion is rendered with Davidson’s characteristic blend of heightened realism and fast, gestural paint-handling. Aidan Dunne, March 2019