Irish Artist: Mary Swanzy

 

Since March is Women’s History Month, and I wrote this blog on St. Patrick’s Day, so I am sharing Irish artist Mary Swanzy (1883-1978).

In 1910, women art students posed for a class picture at Dublin’s Metropolitan Art School featured on the National Art Gallery of Ireland’s website. The article featured women artists who pursued landscape painting, portraiture, textiles, printmaking, stained glass, and abstract art. Swanzy was one of the women in the photo.

In 2019, Michael and I went to Ireland and visited the National Gallery of Ireland. Interestingly, I took several different photos of the artwork; the oil painting, “Pattern of Rooftops, Czechoslovakia” (1920-1922) by Mary Swanzy, was in my photo collection, which I used for my image. Swanzy was born in Dublin into an affluent family, which allowed her to study art and travel. She also studied art in France and Germany, where she was introduced to “modern art.” One aspect I found interesting throughout her career was her eclectic style. She painted landscapes, gradually integrating Cubist and Fauvist influences into her art.

Her painting “Pattern of Rooftops, Czechoslovakia” shows the impact of Fauvism’s (1904) bright colors. You may know the work of Matiesse and Derain, two French artists who began this “modern” style. They were known as the “wild beast” because of their use of color.

Another design component was Vorticism, which she used in this painting; the red rooftops follow a curved line, showing movement.

Did you follow the curved lines? We witness this landscape from a higher place, looking down on the scene. Her use of both techniques—the bright colors of red rooftops and their swirled movement—pulls our eyes to follow the pattern to the center; a small rooftop shaded with blue gives a sense of distance.

This painting might not look “abstract” to you compared to the modern art we are accustomed but considering the time these artists lived, their ideals broke the molds of traditional thinking in their time. Quite a few Irish Women Artists from the 1910 Class of Dublin’s School of Metropolitan Art were the “first” to bring printmaking, tapestry/embroidery, and abstract art into Ireland’s World of Art. They were at the forefront of new ideas, societies, boards, and other contributions to Modern Art in Ireland.

To know more about these fantastic women artists, visit https://nationalgallery.ie.