Brian O'Doherty (4 May 1928 – 7 November 2022) was an Irish-American

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, writer, visual artist, and academic. He lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

for over 50 years, serving as an art critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, as well as an editor for '' Art in America''. He used a number of

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

s, including Patrick Ireland.

Early life and education

O'Doherty was born at Ballaghaderreen in

County Roscommon County Roscommon () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the province of Connacht and the Northern and Western Region. It is the List of Irish counties by area, 11th largest Irish county by area and Li ...

in 1928, and grew up in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

.Ciarán Benson (2011)
No sad imperialist of the aesthetic self
''The Dublin Review of Books'' 17 (Spring 2011). Archived 3 June 2014. He studied medicine at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, and did post-graduate work at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and at the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

. .n.(1 June 1997)
Brian O'Doherty: University Professor of Fine Arts and Media Southampton College of Long Island University
Long Island University. Accessed January 2014. In 1957, O'Doherty spent a year working in a cancer hospital before devoting himself full-time to the visual arts. Speaking of his experience after Harvard:

Career

In the 1960s, O'Doherty was an art critic for the ''New York Times.'' He commissioned

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

to write his "Death of the Author" essay for a special edition of ''Aspen'' magazine in 1967. He was also an editor of '' Art in America'' and an on-air art critic for

. In his mid-career, O'Doherty began signing his work under the name "Patrick Ireland" in reaction to the Bloody Sunday killings in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

in 1972. For many years, O'Doherty was an influential member of the senior staff of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

; first as director of the Visual Arts Program, and subsequently as director of the Media Arts Program, where he was responsible for the creation of such major public television series as '' American Masters'' and ''

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is produced by the PBS member statio ...

''. He authored numerous works of art criticism, including his books ''American Masters'' (1973) and ''Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space'' (1976), a series of essays first published in ''Artforum''. In the latter book, he discusses and invents the term for the contemporary gallery space. He also wrote novels: ''The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P.'' (1992), the 2000

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

-nominated ''The Deposition of Father McGreevy'' (1999), and ''The Crossdresser's Secret'' (2014). He had a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

at Dublin's Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in 2005. In 1975, after a visit to the home of Beverly Pepper in Todi, Italy, O'Doherty and his wife bought a vacation home in the town, and painted the plastered interior walls in vibrant colors. The house is now open for tours and is known as the Casa Dipinta of Todi. On 20 May 2008, in recognition of the progress for peace in Ireland, O'Doherty ceremoniously buried his alter ego at the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art (), also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. It is located in Kilmainham, Dublin. History Irish art collector Gordon Lam ...

in Dublin, and resumed being called by his birth name. In 2018, at the age of 90, O’Doherty was the subject of three exhibitions celebrating his work in his native Ireland, including the restoration of the room sized “One Here Now” installation he created at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cork in 1995-96. In ''The modern art collection, Trinity College Dublin'', David Scott writes that:

Much influenced by
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
he is an essentially interrogative artist, constantly questioning artistic conventions and the assumptions on which we base our aesthetic judgements.

Personal life and death

For more than 30 years, O'Doherty was married to

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

and former chair of the Art History department at

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

, Barbara Novak. He lived and worked in the United States. O'Doherty died at his home in New York on 7 November 2022, at the age of 94.

References

External links

at Ubuweb {{DEFAULTSORT:Odoherty, Brian 1928 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Irish painters 21st-century Irish painters 21st-century Irish male artists Irish male painters Irish sculptors People from Ballaghaderreen 20th-century sculptors 21st-century sculptors Irish expatriates in the United States Alumni of University College Dublin Irish art critics The New York Times journalists Art in America editors 20th-century Irish male artists Artists from County Roscommon Writers from County Roscommon Irish male sculptors

Early life and education

Career

Personal life and death

References

Further reading

External links