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C110 review
Belfast: Catherine McWilliams at
Naughton Gallery
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| Catherine McWilliams: Schoolgirl,
Belfast, 1974, mixed media on paper on board, 20" x 16";
courtesy the artist |
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| Catherine McWilliams: Women with
Peace Line and Cavehill, 1983, mixed media on paper, 30"
x 23"; courtesy the artist |
With mysterious figures, brightly coloured
landscapes and often-autobiographical subject matter, Catherine
McWilliams' first major retrospective exhibition opened in the
Naughton Gallery, Queen's University, in September this year.
Although McWilliams has exhibited in solo and group shows internationally
since the 1960s, this retrospective was prompted by the rediscovery
of a self-portrait she had painted in 1961. The first painting
you encounter in the main gallery space, this minimalist portrait
meets us with an honest, unchallenging gaze, introducing both
the artist's personality and the other works.
McWilliams attends to the Troubles in dark paintings with 'occasional flashes of hope' (literally a glimmer of bright colour), such as Woman with Peace Line and Cavehill (1983), Girl with birds and dying flowers (1983), Irish landscape II (1983) and Woman with security barrier (1983). These paintings often feature passive, trapped, unidentifiable individuals, such as Belfast girl (1983) or School girl (1974). School girl features an indistinct child whose head and shoulders are framed in a golden backdrop, around which a dark-black background encloses her entirely.
McWilliam's work is often concerned with landscape or figures
set within it, exploring the traditional distinction between landscape
and figuration, often marrying the two in works such as Nude
I, hidden village (1977), where a landscape of rock comes
together to form a distinctly male figure. In doing this, perhaps
McWilliams is suggesting that we, as a nation, are inherently
linked to our land, particularly throughout the time of the Troubles.
In bringing together both landscape and figurative painting in
this context, McWilliams recalls the notion of 'Mother Ireland',
especially in works such as Celtic goddess I (1986-87)
and Celtic goddess II (1986-87).
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| Catherine McWilliams: Seated nude
with frogs, 1977, pencil on paper, 22" x 16"; courtesy
the artist |
Merging figure and landscape, the artist illustrates fear and confusion, doubt and metamorphosis, notions which engulf her half-human, half-animal drawings. In Seated nude with frogs (1977) a seated woman's body blurs into the white background as her very identity fades. Already unsure, this figure's head is replaced by three frogs moving in different directions.
Much of the work on show depicts this struggle with not only the artist's sense of personal, but our broader socio-political, identity. Again the recurring glimmer of hope reappears in her work of the late eighties, now representing the coming of a new hope uniting polarised identities. In Lovers (1987) and Three Belfast figures (1986), McWilliams subtly brings together the symbolism of both loyalist and republican communities. In Three Belfast figures, McWilliams sets three women apart from the background by making the image three-dimensional and setting them in the foreground like the three graces. While the figures on the left and right are shrouded in the colours of each community, the central figure is a mixture of the two, representing a universal identity. Throughout this retrospective, McWilliam's work explores such personal and shared anxieties, in four decades' worth of changing vision, attitude, and technique.
Niamh McNamara
Catherine McWilliams: A Retrospective
1962-2004, Naughton Gallery, Queen's University, Belfast
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