Northern Ireland

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Northern Ireland Office, 1 Horse Guards Road

A man on the right-hand panel of this print carries a full tea service on a tray, perhaps, as the ‘Exit’ signs on the wall behind him suggests, in a cafe or restaurant. The colours in this portion of the print spill over into the larger left-hand section, where they take on a more sinister quality within a scene of street violence and chaos. In this portion we see the yellows and reds emanating from a fire in a distant building. Elsewhere, two men leaning with their hands against a wall are shown, their backs to us, another carrying something that could be either a hose or a weapon.
The artist Anthony Davies’ attention was drawn to the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1981 hunger strikes at the Maze Prison. Davies felt it was ‘a matter of personal integrity’ to bear witness to what was happening there. Consequently, he took up a teaching post in Belfast and moved his print studio from South Wales to the commercial heart of the city, an area which was fenced off at night from the rest of the country due to frequent nighttime bombings and violence. This print is one of many that Davies made during that time in order to document the scenes happening on the streets of Belfast. Rather than focusing on any one particular event, this print, like many others by him, offers a sense of the chaos, violence and fear of those times that ran alongside scenes of everyday life.

Anthony Davies was born in Hampshire in 1947. He studied at the Winchester School of Art before going on to the Royal College of Art and then the British School in Rome, where he was awarded the Prix de Rome. Davies has exhibited his work widely in the UK and overseas, representing Britain at numerous international print biennials, winning prizes at several. He lived in Belfast between 1983 and 1986, during which time he taught printmaking at the University of Ulster. Davies was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers in 1994. He currently lives in New Zealand and is based in Aramoho, Wanganui at Hotspur Studios, which he founded in 2002.

Places

Northern Ireland

Subjects

car, poster (as Subject), topography, townscape/cityscape, man, tray, cup, saucer, teapot, rifle (military), soldier, church, spire

Materials & Techniques

lithograph

Artist

Anthony Davies (1947 - )

Title

Northern Ireland

Portfolio Title

Artists' Choice

Edition

45/48

Date

1987

Medium

Lithograph

Dimensions

height: 30.60 cm, width: 30.60 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Royal College of Art, November 2007

Inscription

verso, tl: 45/48 ; tr: A davies / 87

Provenance

Royal College of Art

GAC number

18161/15