Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 21st October 2019

108 77 Deborah Brown (b.1927) White on Canvas (1962) signed and dated ‘62 verso with artist’s reference No: 209/62 oil on canvas 41 x 51cm (16 x 20in) Provenance: Collection of Fr. Jack Hanlon; Private Collection €1,200-1,800 (£1,061-1,592) Inspired by the calligraphic art and sumi ink drawings of the Far East, with one sweep of a wide scene-painter’s brush, Brown has made a continual curving mark on this raw linen canvas. She has used the Japanese calligraphic character ‘Enso’, a circular brushstroke, representing the state of mind at the moment of enlightenment, but has added a flourish of her own. The result is an elegant but forceful abstract work of art, a distillation of the art of painting, with its long and complex history, into one gesture. Born in Belfast in 1927, Deborah Brown grew up on Cushenden, Co. Antrim. The painter James Humbert Craig was a family friend, and, inspired by his example and teaching, Brown enrolled in the Belfast College of Art in 1946. A year later, she trans- ferred to the National College of Art in Dublin, where her tutors included Sean Keating and Maurice MacGonigal. An additional period of study in Paris, and travels in Italy, was followed by a return to Belfast, where in addition to sculpting and painting she worked as a stage designer for the Lyric Theatre. In 1970 Brown won the prestigious Carroll’s Open Award, and three years later represented Ireland at Cagne-sur-Mer International Festival. From 1966 she exhibited at the Hendriks Gallery in Dublin. Brown was technically innovative, and many of her early works were inspired by the cut and shaped canvases of Lucio Fontana, while during the 1960’s she used fibreglass and resin as materials for three-dimensional pieces. Pursuing a successful career as a painter, sculptor and designer, a retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Ulster Museum in 1982. She was also selected for ROSC exhibitions in 1971 and 1984. Although, along with Pat Scott and Cecil King, Brown was one of Ireland’s most accomplished non-representational artists, in later years she returned to making figurative work. Among her public com- missions is the popular life-size bronze sculpture Sheep in the Road outside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. She is represented in the collections of the Hugh Lane Gallery, Trinity College, RTE and IMMA in Dublin, and the Ulster Museum in Belfast, as well as in many other private and public collections. Peter Murray, September 2019