Seán McSweeney (17 December 1935 – 2 June 2018) was an Irish painter and member of the arts organisation

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiati ...

Early life

McSweeney was born 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 ...

in 1935. He worked for a time as a

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

, and became interested in art due to his father, also an artist, and because of visits to the

Hugh Lane Gallery The Hugh Lane Gallery, and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its wholly-owned company, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House (built 1763) on Parnell Square, Dub ...

Career

McSweeney was self-taught as a painter, living in

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

for a time before moving to his mother's home (Ballyconnell, northern

County Sligo County Sligo ( , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region and is part of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in ...

) in the 1980s. He was inspired by painters like Patrick Collins and Jack B. Yeats. He first exhibitied his work at the Cavendish Gallery, Dublin in the late 1950s; he was featured in the first

Irish Exhibition of Living Art The Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA; ) was a yearly exhibition of Irish abstract expressionism and avant-garde Irish art that was started in 1943 by Mainie Jellett. Background World War II Ireland During World War II, Ireland maintai ...

in 1962. His first solo show was at the Dawson Gallery in 1965. He had a retrospective show at The Model, Sligo in 2007. Sol s and g

According to the Kenny Gallery, "his bog pools and Sligo landscapes are iconic in Irish painting. Vibrant

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

mingle with dense

blacks Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ch ...

to suggest an almost primal depth." According to the

Taylor Galleries Taylor Galleries is a contemporary commercial art gallery in Dublin, Ireland. History Taylor Galleries opened in July 1978 ostensibly as a continuation of the Dawson Gallery – a gallery established by Leo Smith in 1944. John Taylor – wh ...

, McSweeney was

Personal life

McSweeney married Sheila Murphy in 1967; they had five children. He died in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McSweeney, Sean Aosdána members Artists from Dublin (city) Artists from County Sligo Members of the Royal Hibernian Academy 20th-century Irish painters 21st-century Irish painters 1935 births 2018 deaths Irish contemporary artists Self-taught artists