29
THE GAWKY COCKEREL by Basil Blackshaw
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
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Description
Basil Blackshaw HRHA, HRUA, 1932-2016
THE GAWKY COCKEREL
Oil on canvas, 40" x 34" (101.6 x 86.3cm), signed.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; Private Collection, Belfast and by descent.
THE GAWKY COCKEREL
Oil on canvas, 40" x 34" (101.6 x 86.3cm), signed.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; Private Collection, Belfast and by descent.
Horses, dogs and fighting cocks are emblematic of the main body of Basil Blackshaw’s works. Through many of these works Basil gives us an insight into the man himself. He was rooted in the countryside. He didn’t give a damn about travelling. He used to say to me “Doagh is abroad for me.” ( Doagh was about three miles away from where he lived in Antrim). That remark spoke volumes about Basil. The world came to Blackshaw. Don’t ask me how. It seemed to me he caught so much in the wind. He was wonderfully in tune with nature.
A colleague of mine, Maurice Cassidy, who gifted copies of my biography on Basil to a Paris artist friend and his fellow artists observed “why have we not heard of this painter? He has resolved all the problems of making pictures.”
Basil was one of the smartest people I have known. He was an art delinquent, re-writing the rules of painting, dispensing with so much tradition and freeing himself from the rigours of college art. He was in reality, a child artist, unaware of inhibitions. He took chances as a painter. He once told me “I steal from good artists and bad artists. A bad artist can resolve a problem for you too. It is what you do with the theft when you have it.” He said. That is not to say, Basil did not pay a price for his art making. He did. Quite often he sat for weeks on end waiting for inspiration. He could be at the same time a bit of a knave like many creative people. On meeting playwright Brian Friel - Friel might ask “doing any painting Basil?” “Nah...the well is dry Brian.” He would say. On the other hand Blackshaw might ask Friel - “how is the writing going Brian?” “Hopeless, nothing doing.” Friel would reply. Both of them were probably lying to each other.
Basil loved his roosters. There was nothing he didn’t know about fighting cocks. Like horses he knew their breed,seed, and generation.
He once told me he was in a bad way in Antrim Hospital when a Filipino nurse came to care for him. Knowing the history of cockfighting in the Philippines Basil asked the young nurse if she knew anything about cock fighting. She explained to him her grandfather had bred some famous roosters. Basil told me “I started to get better very quickly.”
‘Gawky Cockerel’ on this sale is one of the finest cockerels I have ever seen by Basil. He painted another one on this scale. They are master-pieces. In this work the artist captures they very essence, energy and power of the bird. The colours lend to the fire in the bird’s belly, of necessity for its role in life.
I knew the man who owned this gawky cockerel. He bought the work directly from Basil and this is critically important to any purchaser of a major work to know the provenance. I suspect the owner of this painting went and bought himself a big pair of brown boots to celebrate the procuring of Gawky Cockerel. Those brown boots to the cockerel owner was as important to him as the ash plant is to the cattle dealer about whom Heaney wrote in one of his poems.
Perhaps this is a self portrait. Perhaps Blackshaw sees this cockerel as an extension of himself, living on the edge, slightly dangerously.
Interestingly Basil only paints one bird in any painting. His focus is absolute. What we see in this painting is the confidence of the rooster, head stretched, chest out probably crowing after a big feed of corn.
Blackshaw was an edge of society man. “How are you Basil?” People would ask. “Still lying under a tree, killing the odd rat and drinking a bottle of stout,” more often than not, was the response. He loved travellers, doggie men, horsey people and he especially enjoyed cockfighting. He told me he used to go cockfighting with Seamus Heaney’s father Paddy. Long Nancy’s on the Armagh Monaghan border was one of their favourite haunts. The purchaser of the Gawky Cockerel will have a lot about which to crow!
Eamon Mallie, November 2020.
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Basil Blackshaw HRHA, HRUA, 1932-2016
THE GAWKY COCKEREL
Oil on canvas, 40" x 34" (101.6 x 86.3cm), signed.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; Private Collection, Belfast and by descent.
THE GAWKY COCKEREL
Oil on canvas, 40" x 34" (101.6 x 86.3cm), signed.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; Private Collection, Belfast and by descent.
Horses, dogs and fighting cocks are emblematic of the main body of Basil Blackshaw’s works. Through many of these works Basil gives us an insight into the man himself. He was rooted in the countryside. He didn’t give a damn about travelling. He used to say to me “Doagh is abroad for me.” ( Doagh was about three miles away from where he lived in Antrim). That remark spoke volumes about Basil. The world came to Blackshaw. Don’t ask me how. It seemed to me he caught so much in the wind. He was wonderfully in tune with nature.
A colleague of mine, Maurice Cassidy, who gifted copies of my biography on Basil to a Paris artist friend and his fellow artists observed “why have we not heard of this painter? He has resolved all the problems of making pictures.”
Basil was one of the smartest people I have known. He was an art delinquent, re-writing the rules of painting, dispensing with so much tradition and freeing himself from the rigours of college art. He was in reality, a child artist, unaware of inhibitions. He took chances as a painter. He once told me “I steal from good artists and bad artists. A bad artist can resolve a problem for you too. It is what you do with the theft when you have it.” He said. That is not to say, Basil did not pay a price for his art making. He did. Quite often he sat for weeks on end waiting for inspiration. He could be at the same time a bit of a knave like many creative people. On meeting playwright Brian Friel - Friel might ask “doing any painting Basil?” “Nah...the well is dry Brian.” He would say. On the other hand Blackshaw might ask Friel - “how is the writing going Brian?” “Hopeless, nothing doing.” Friel would reply. Both of them were probably lying to each other.
Basil loved his roosters. There was nothing he didn’t know about fighting cocks. Like horses he knew their breed,seed, and generation.
He once told me he was in a bad way in Antrim Hospital when a Filipino nurse came to care for him. Knowing the history of cockfighting in the Philippines Basil asked the young nurse if she knew anything about cock fighting. She explained to him her grandfather had bred some famous roosters. Basil told me “I started to get better very quickly.”
‘Gawky Cockerel’ on this sale is one of the finest cockerels I have ever seen by Basil. He painted another one on this scale. They are master-pieces. In this work the artist captures they very essence, energy and power of the bird. The colours lend to the fire in the bird’s belly, of necessity for its role in life.
I knew the man who owned this gawky cockerel. He bought the work directly from Basil and this is critically important to any purchaser of a major work to know the provenance. I suspect the owner of this painting went and bought himself a big pair of brown boots to celebrate the procuring of Gawky Cockerel. Those brown boots to the cockerel owner was as important to him as the ash plant is to the cattle dealer about whom Heaney wrote in one of his poems.
Perhaps this is a self portrait. Perhaps Blackshaw sees this cockerel as an extension of himself, living on the edge, slightly dangerously.
Interestingly Basil only paints one bird in any painting. His focus is absolute. What we see in this painting is the confidence of the rooster, head stretched, chest out probably crowing after a big feed of corn.
Blackshaw was an edge of society man. “How are you Basil?” People would ask. “Still lying under a tree, killing the odd rat and drinking a bottle of stout,” more often than not, was the response. He loved travellers, doggie men, horsey people and he especially enjoyed cockfighting. He told me he used to go cockfighting with Seamus Heaney’s father Paddy. Long Nancy’s on the Armagh Monaghan border was one of their favourite haunts. The purchaser of the Gawky Cockerel will have a lot about which to crow!
Eamon Mallie, November 2020.
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