Basil Blackshaw : Selected Works

Blackshaw was a student at the Belfast College of Art in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He maintained a connection with the Art School throughout his career, visiting and advising students in their developing practice across the years.

Featuring paintings from National Museums NI, Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum, the Arts Council of NI, Ulster University and private collections, this exhibition is enriched by a selection of Blackshaw’s sketchbooks, on loan from his family, and on public display for the first time.

Blackshaw’s art was inextricably interwoven with his deep roots in his rural locality. While he is celebrated as one of Ireland’s greatest painters, he was most comfortable in the countryside, talking about horses and dogs rather than art. Blackshaw’s focus on local subjects has helped shape our conceptions of rural Ulster and immortalised a way of life through paint.

Biography:

Born in Glengormley, Co. Antrim, Basil Blackshaw was brought up in Boardmills near Lisburn. He attended Methodist College Belfast followed by a period at Belfast College of Art between 1948 and 1951. In 1951 he was awarded a scholarship by CEMA (Committee for the Encouragement of Music and Arts) to study in Paris. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland organised a retrospective of his work in 1995 and in 2002 the Ulster Museum held a major exhibition of his work. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1977 and a full Academician in 1981.

[Source: Art UK]