Gerald Davis: Gerald Davis, who has died aged 66, was a painter, gallery owner, critic, sometime businessman and oft time personifier of Leopold Bloom.
He also enjoyed collecting art, beginning with a painting by Cecil King he bought for £12, and consistently supported Irish artists.
He described himself as an old-fashioned painter who loved paint and what could be done with it. "The landscape and light of Ireland is wonderful, especially in the west and I love the midland lakes . . . The theatre, dance and reading and studying Joyce and Beckett have greatly informed my thought, and my pictures are probably an amalgam of all these things combined with my life experience."
Davis was highly critical of the Irish art establishment for its "provincial" outlook. "They continue picking up on the scrapings of the international arts barrel. I don't think by his nature the Irish artist is an abstract painter, or purely an abstract painter."
Born in Dublin in 1938, he was the only child of Sydney Davis and his wife, Doris (née Miller). His father, the son of a Lithuanian Jew who came to Ireland in the 1880s, sold clothes and household goods from door to door and in 1950 set up shop in Capel Street, Dublin, trading as The Rubber Stamp Company.
He was educated at St Andrew's College, Booterstown, and at 16, having completed his Intermediate Certificate, joined the family business. By the 1960s he was in charge of what was now Davis Stationery, while his father pursued other business interests.
A capable businessman, he was, however, more interested in painting. Encouraged by his teachers, Christopher Ryan at secondary school and Terence Gayer at night classes in the National College of Art, he grew to love art.
Early influences included Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, and he learnt the rudiments of painting in the company of Seán McSweeney and John Kelly. He first showed his work in a joint exhibition with photographer Maurice Fridburg, and his first solo show was held at the Molesworth Gallery, Dublin, in 1962. Over the following 40 years he held more than 150 solo exhibitions, selling at least 3,000 paintings.
His work was exhibited in major group shows, including the Royal Hibernian Academy, Living Art and Oireachtas exhibitions. In 1977 he was awarded the Douglas Hyde Gold medal by the Arts Council. That year also he paid homage to the literary genius of James Joyce in an exhibition entitled Paintings for Bloomsday, repeating the exercise in 1982 with The Joycean Year.
A major 25-year retrospective of his work at the Guinness Hop Store in 1987 showed another side of his personality - a passion for jazz. During the course of the exhibition he collaborated with the guitarist, Louis Stewart, in six lunchtime presentations of A Brush With Jazz, which explored the interaction of music and painting.
"I'm attracted to the energy and the excitement and the visceral quality of jazz. The reason I like jazz a lot is because it is sexy music and I think sexuality is a huge part of our lives. I've described the actual quality of working with oil paints as being extremely sensual," he said.
His love of jazz led him to found Livia Records in the late 1970s. Ireland's leading jazz musicians recorded for the label, and he produced Stewart's debut album, Louis the First, as well as others highlighting the spoken arts with Brendan Kennelly, John Molloy and Niall Toibin. Another venture was the Davis Gallery at Capel Street. "There was no place for young painters to exhibit and I had the space above my shop," he explained. The gallery exhibited high-quality craftwork in addition to painting and sculpture. The opening exhibition featured drawings by the sculptor, Edward Delaney. Donal O'Sullivan, Mary Farl Powers, and Pat O'Connor were among the emerging artists to show their work, along with Charles Cullen, Martin Gale and Jonathan Wade.
Recognition of the gallery's contribution to the visual arts in Ireland came in 1995, when President Mary Robinson opened a jubilee exhibition showing work by 25 artists.
His interest in Joyce led him to bring the character of Leopold Bloom to life in Bloomsday celebrations at home and abroad. He caused a stir in Sydney in 1992, reading from Ulysses in the lingerie department of an upmarket store. A photograph of him in character among scantily-clad mannequins inspired the Sydney Morning Herald headline: "A bit of Joyce goes down like silk knickers".
His involvement in the stationery business ended in 1981 with the death of his father. Thereafter he concentrated on painting and on running the gallery. Proud of his Jewish heritage, he described as one of the characteristics of Judaism, "a slightly over-the-topness, whether that be playing the violin or telling a joke".
He is survived by his daughters, Debbie and Judy, son, Leslie, ex-wife, Joan, and partner, Barbara.
Gerald Davis: born October 10th, 1938; died June 18th, 2005