Edited with text by Sean Kissane. Foreword by Moling Ryan. Text by Liz Cullinane.
Mary Swanzy (1882–1978) was a pioneering figure in Irish art. She was educated in Paris where she exhibited at the Paris Salons as her work rapidly evolved through different styles: postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, symbolism and surrealism—each transformed by her in a highly personal way. Following the devastation of World War I she went to Czechoslovakia as an aid worker; in 1923 she literally crossed the world on an epic voyage to Hawaii and Samoa, producing a body of work that is unique in an Irish context. Throughout the ‘20s and ‘30s she exhibited in the USA, Hawaii, UK, Belgium and Ireland, and regularly in Paris at both the Salon des Indépendants and the Beaux-Arts. This publication is the first complete monograph on the artist and aims to introduce the audience to Swanzy’s extraordinary achievements and reinstate her reputation as a modernist Irish master.
"Trees" (1920s) is reproduced from 'Mary Swanzy: Voyages.'
We're celebrating Women's History Month and St. Patrick's Day with this image from Mary Swanzy: Voyages, the first comprehensive monograph on the pioneering Irish Modernist. Produced during her Paris years, during which time she was embraced by Gertrude Stein and her coterie, "Flowers and Lighthouse" (c. 1927) is among Swanzy's Cubist paintings. But she was an artist of fierce independence and ever-evolving curiosities, whose work also flirted with Post-Impressionism, naturalism, Futurism, Symbolism and Surrealism. To settle with one style, or even one person, was not in her DNA. "She talked about her art being her consuming passion and how much better it was that it should be art, and not a young man, for it was something that she could keep control over," Seán Kissane writes. "Artists should keep their life-force for the easel for if they wasted it on relationships there would be nothing left for the art." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.25 x 10.75 in. / 224 pgs / 210 color / 30 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $69.95 GBP £45.00 ISBN: 9781909792203 PUBLISHER: Irish Museum of Modern Art AVAILABLE: 2/19/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Irish Museum of Modern Art. Edited with text by Sean Kissane. Foreword by Moling Ryan. Text by Liz Cullinane.
Mary Swanzy (1882–1978) was a pioneering figure in Irish art. She was educated in Paris where she exhibited at the Paris Salons as her work rapidly evolved through different styles: postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, symbolism and surrealism—each transformed by her in a highly personal way. Following the devastation of World War I she went to Czechoslovakia as an aid worker; in 1923 she literally crossed the world on an epic voyage to Hawaii and Samoa, producing a body of work that is unique in an Irish context. Throughout the ‘20s and ‘30s she exhibited in the USA, Hawaii, UK, Belgium and Ireland, and regularly in Paris at both the Salon des Indépendants and the Beaux-Arts. This publication is the first complete monograph on the artist and aims to introduce the audience to Swanzy’s extraordinary achievements and reinstate her reputation as a modernist Irish master.
