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Geard Dillon
Gerard Dillon (1916 – 14 June
1971) was an Irish artist.
Born in Belfast, he left school
at the age of fourteen and for
seven years worked as a
painter and decorator, mostly
in London. From an early age
he was interested in art,
cinema, and theatre. About
1936 he started out as an
artist, almost entirely self-
taught but attended art
classes in Belfast for a short
period of time. He and Dan
O'Neill were painting
acquaintances.
Dillon's Connemara
landscapes provided the
viewer with context, portraits
of the characters who worked
the land, atmosphere and
idiosyncratic colour
interpretations.
At the age of eighteen, Dillon
went to London, initially
working as a decorator. With
the outbreak of the second
World War, Dillon returned to
Belfast. The outbreak of war
in 1939 prevented his return
to London, and over the next
five years he developed as a
painter in Dublin and Belfast.
His works during this period
were more than simple
depictions of the life and
people around him, they were
reactions and interactions in
paint.
In 1942, Gerard's first solo
exhibition was opened by his
friend and fellow artist, Mainie
Jellett at The Country Shop,
St. Stephen's Green,
Dublin. "Father, Forgive Them
Their Sins" featured depicting
his concerns about the new
War that had broken out.
But despite a growing
reputation, he had to return to
London in 1944 to work on
demolition gangs to restore
his finances, but after the war
he became more successful
as an artist.
In the late 1940s and during
the 1950s, Dillon found
himself favouring the town of
Roundstone, Connemara - a
little village at the edge of
existence, the Twelve Pin
mountains commanding the
skyline to one side and the
sea and the Island of Inish
Lacken to the other.
In 1958 had the double
honour of representing
Ireland at the Guggenheim
International, and Great
Britain at the Pittsburg
International Exhibition. He
travelled widely in Europe and
taught for brief periods in the
London art schools.
In 1967, Dillon had a stroke
and spent six weeks in
hospital, from this time his
work changed direction. He
realized that he had a
problem from which he was
most likely going to die
prematurely; his three
brothers were already in the
grave from similar heart
diseases. This notion of
imminent death sent his work
almost into another world, a
realm of dreams and
paintings intimating his death.
The summer of 1968 he was
back in Dublin, where he
helped to design sets and
costumes for O'Casey's Juno
and the Paycock. He
continued to paint and also to
make tapestries, sitting at his
Singer sewing machine.
In 1969, Dillon pulled his
artworks from the Belfast leg
of the Irish Exhibition of Living
Art as a public protest against
troubles and the 'arrogance of
the Unionist mob' as he put it
in a letter to the Irish Times,
20 August. However, he
admitted years later that it
was a gesture which was
slightly over the top since, as
Michael Longley had retorted
in a further letter, 'Belfast
needed creativity, it needed
people like Gerard Dillon' at
this time.
During his last years, he was
invited to be involved in a
children's art workshop in The
National Gallery of Ireland.
Dillon died of a second stroke
on 14 June 1971 at the age of
55; his grave, as requested,
is unmarked in Belfast
Milltown Cemetery. 19 |
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