Maurice MacGonigal
Maurice MacGonigal was born in Dublin and was the son of a painter and decorator from Sligo. He served as an apprentice to his uncle Joshua Clarke who was a designer and artist of stained glass (also father to Harry Clarke). He attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art from 1923 -1926, after winning a scholarship and studied painting under Sean Keating, Patrick Tuohy and James Sinton Sleator. He became a teacher there in 1932 and instructed classes for over thirty years. As well as painting, Mac Gonigal created set designs for Abbey Theatre, worked as an illustrator and designer.
Mac Gonigal is considered one of the main proponents of the traditional school of national realism, along with his contemporary, Sean Keating, at a time when traditional and modernist ideas were coming to blows on the Irish art scene. Like Keating, Mac Gonigal was preoccupied with creating a visual representation of the new free nation of Ireland, though unlike his contemporary, he cast all his subjects in a assertively positive light. He painted quickly on canvas en plein air and experimented occasionally with modernist styles, much to the derision of his colleagues at the academy.
He was a member of Royal Hibernian Academy and acted as president from 1962-77 following the death of his teacher, Keating. Among his achievements was a retrospective of his work at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. He is included in a number of important collections including the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Crawford Gallery, Cork and Ulster Museum, Belfast.
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Mac Gonigal is considered one of the main proponents of the traditional school of national realism, along with his contemporary, Sean Keating, at a time when traditional and modernist ideas were coming to blows on the Irish art scene. Like Keating, Mac Gonigal was preoccupied with creating a visual representation of the new free nation of Ireland, though unlike his contemporary, he cast all his subjects in a assertively positive light. He painted quickly on canvas en plein air and experimented occasionally with modernist styles, much to the derision of his colleagues at the academy.
He was a member of Royal Hibernian Academy and acted as president from 1962-77 following the death of his teacher, Keating. Among his achievements was a retrospective of his work at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. He is included in a number of important collections including the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Crawford Gallery, Cork and Ulster Museum, Belfast.
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