Brian Bourke (born 1936 in Dublin) is an Irish artist.[1]

Life edit

Bourke was born in Dublin in 1936. His parents were Thomas Bourke (Tómas de Búrca) and Eileen (Eibhlín) Bourke (née Somers).[2] Bourke left school early and got a job in the art department of the Player Wills tobacco company on the condition he enrolled at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD).[3] He later studied at Saint Martin's School of Art in London.[1] After London, he spent time in Germany and was strongly influence by the Neue Sachlichkeit art movement. He returned to Dublin in 1957 and held his first one-man show in Dublin in 1964 at the Dawson Gallery.[4] He travelled across Europe in the 1960s and 1970s.[3]

In 1965 Bourke won an Arts Council prize for portraiture and represented Ireland at the Biennale de Paris. He won the Munster and Leinster Bank competition in 1966,[citation needed] and first prize in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art competition in 1967.[1] He was included in the Delighted Eye, the Hibernian landscape[5] and the Cork Rosc exhibitions in 1980.[4]

In 1985, he was named Sunday Independent Artist of the Year,[6] and he received the O'Malley Award from the Irish-American Cultural Institute in 1993.[1] A retrospective of his work was exhibited as part of the Galway Arts Festival in 1988.[5]

In 1991, he was artist-in-residence at the Gate Theatre's Beckett Festival in Dublin, with accompanying works appearing at the Douglas Hyde Gallery.[4]

In 2001, a large exhibition of his portraits of women, centred on portraits of his son's adopted daughter, appeared at the Dyehouse Gallery in Waterford.[citation needed] He lives in Connemara, County Galway. Bourke held another retrospective exhibition in the Claremorris Gallery in 2022.[7] He is a member of the Aosdána and an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy.[8]

Bourke's brother was the photographer Fergus Bourke.[2] Bourke has married twice, first to Ann, a lecturer at NCAD, and secondly to Jay Murphy, also an artist.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Brian Bourke". IMMA. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b Lunney, Linde (2010). "Bourke, Fergus (Ignatius) | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Review: Brian Bourke, Five Decades: 1960s-2000s by Brian Bourke". independent. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "Brian Bourke" (PDF). TCD Art Collections. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  5. ^ a b "The Collection - Dublin City University". 23 September 2005. Archived from the original on 23 September 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  6. ^ "Kildare County Council Arts Service - Brian Bourke". kildarecoco.ie. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Never seen before works by artist Brian Bourke for Mayo exhibition". Connaught Telegraph. 18 March 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Brian Burke: Artist Talk". Dublin.ie. Retrieved 14 December 2022.

External links edit