Tony O'Malley (25 September 1913 – 20 January 2003) was an Irish artist. He was born in

Callan, County Kilkenny Callan () is a town and civil parish in County Kilkenny in Ireland. Situated 16 km (10 mi) south of Kilkenny on the N76 road to Clonmel, it is near the border with County Tipperary. It is the second largest town in the county, and had a ...

, Ireland. O'Malley was a self-taught artist, having drawn and painted for pleasure from childhood. He worked as a bank officìal until contracting

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

in the 1940s. He began painting in earnest while convalescing and, though he did at first return to bank work, he continued to paint and in 1951 he began exhibiting his work.

Life and career

In 1955 O'Malley holidayed in

St Ives, Cornwall St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commerci ...

, then an important center of abstract art, and home to the artists

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the age ...

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...

, and

Bryan Wynter Bryan Herbert Wynter (8 September 1915 – 2 February 1975)Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

and in O'Malley's native Callan. During this period, his paintings became less sombre and the Bahamas paintings are extremely colourful and vibrant. In 1990 they moved back to Ireland. In 1993 Tony O'Malley was elected a

Saoi Saoi (, plural ''Saoithe''; literally "wise one"; historically the title of the head of a bardic school) is the highest honour bestowed by Aosdána, a state-supported association of Irish creative artists. The title is awarded, for life, to an exis ...

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...

. When he died in 2003 he was regarded as one of Ireland's leading painters.

Legacy

The

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

displayed a major retrospective of his work in 2005. In 2010 under the guidance of Jane O'Malley the RHA established an artist's residency in the house where Tony O'Malley grew up in Callan, County Kilkenny. The studio residency is awarded to artists who work primarily in paint. Previous recipients of the Tony O'Malley Studio Residency Award include Magnhild Opdøl, Ciaran Murphy, Ramon Kassan, Mollie Douthit, David Quinn and Paraic Leahy.

Bibliography

*David Whittaker (2005) "Tony O'Malley: an Irish Artist in Cornwall" Oxfordshire: Wavestone Press *Gemma Tipton (2003) ''Tony O'Malley 1913–2003''. *Dorothy Walker (2003), ''O'Malley, Tony'' in Brian Lalor (Ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of Ireland''. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. *John O'Regan (1994), ''Works 14: Tony O'Malley.'' Dublin: Gandon Editions. . *Brian Lynch (Ed.), Fourth Edition (2004), ''Tony O'Malley.'' Dublin: New Island Books. .

References

External links

Irish Museum of Modern Art (Collection Artists)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omalley, Tony 1913 births 2003 deaths Saoithe 20th-century Irish painters Irish male painters St Ives artists People from Callan, County Kilkenny Irish artists 20th-century Irish male artists