
The Centre Culturel Irlandais is delighted to present this first exhibition in France of works by Basil Blackshaw, one of Ireland's most important contemporary painters. Born in rural County Antrim, where he still lives today, Blackshaw graduated from Belfast College of Art in 1951. This exhibition of a selection of his recent works attests to the artist's powers of innovation and the evolution of his style.
The artist's ability to isolate the essentials is evident in the confidence with which he has now pared down his imagery and his palette to minimal markings on pale-toned surfaces. His delight in the freedom of simple renditions of a car, a flower or a wall is infectious. The viewer is intrigued and seduced by these instinctive responses to the everyday.
One of the original members of the ground-breaking Field Day group - that focused attention on theatre from Northern Ireland in the 1980s - Blackshaw eschews the art world, preferring his rural haunts.
This exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland.