AS FAR as I know, John (now living in Australia) is the only active Irish Photorealist of any note. Robert Ballagh, of course, has done some notable work in that field, but the label does not quite fit him and, many case, I have not seen a Ballagh exhibition for some years. Doherty sticks courageously to a style which went out of fashion a decade ago; and he makes something alive and relevant out of it, too.
In spite of his Australian residence, the subject matter is Irish - mostly shop fronts in small towns, often with the ritual petrol pumps standing on the pavement outside. People rarely come into it; most of these pictures are blank in terms of figures, though human activity is implicit behind every door or window or just out of sight. The painter, I presume, works from photographs and he goes in for much detail - you can almost read the labels on the goods in his show windows.
Photorealism is/was not illusionism, nor does it try to fool you into thinking that you are looking at large framed photographs. The preliminary use of the camera encourages a kind of emotional neutrality and puts a deliberate barrier between the artist and his subject. It is, in fact, close to abstract art and instead of focusing on one angle or centre of interest, it uses the "all over look and equalised brushwork of both Pop and hardedge abstraction.
Doherty's range is (probably by choice) narrow and the small town or waste ground themes he uses are by nature repetitive; neither do they have much colour resonance. Yet his pictures do convey an immediate, sometimes raw presence and his touch with paint is skilled, though unshowy. He travels on a single track, through rather grotty areas, but keeps up a head of steam. (Until May 23rd).
Upstairs in the Taylor Galleries, Patrick Hickey's exhibition has been prolonged until today. Hickey probably is best known as a graphic artist, but his painting is more than a second fiddle to this; it is accomplished and civilised in its own right.
This exhibition includes some elegant still lives, a witty painting of a cat, various land scapes, and a painting of a Huguenot cemetery (in Dublin?); a certain Orientalism seems to be visible throughout. As a painter, he seems to grow more adventurous rather than less.
