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

128 102 George Campbell (1917-1979) Belfast Rioters oil on board 61 x 51cm (24 x 20in) Provenance: The Estate of George and Madge Campbell; Private Collection Exhibited: George Campbell and the Belfast Boys, Adams Summer Exhibition, Dublin, July 2015; Adams, Ava Gallery, Co. Down; August-September 2015, Cat No.132 George Campbell RHA, Centenary Exhibition Arklow Library, August 2017 €1,500-2,500 (£1,327-2,212) Following Bloody Sunday and the Abercorn bombing in Belfast in 1972, George Campbell embarked on a series of paintings representing Belfast during the conflict in Northern Ireland. Friend and journalist, Martin Dillon offered to drive Campbell around Belfast showing him the areas works affected by the Troubles and Campbell made sketches from visits around the city which were later transferred to oil paintings for an exhibition in 1973. This painting Belfast Rioters is part of The Belfast Series which was exhibited at the Tom Caldwell gallery in Belfast in 1973. Unusually the artist did not attach titles to the paintings in the exhibition but chose instead to attach numbers 1-40 to the paintings. In the foreword of the catalogue, Kenneth Jamison, stated that the pictures represented the ‘artist’s personal despair’ at witnessing the violence in Northern Ireland.