Lot 7: Alice Maher (b.1956) LOVERS, 2007 charcoal on

Alice Maher (b.1956) LOVERS, 2007 charcoal on Arches paper 152 by 104cm., 60 by 41in. Purdy Hicks Gallery, London; Private collection Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, 2007; Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, 2007; 'Natural Artifice', Brighton and Hove Museum; Djanogly Art Centre, Nottingham, 2007; 'Alice Maher: The Night Garden', RHA Gallgher Gallery, Dublin, 14 September - 28 October 2007 Lovers is an emblematic work from Maher's 'Night Garden series' which draws inspiration from the intricately detailed masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1503-1504 by Hieronymus Bosch. It is a fitting source of inspiration for Alice Maher whose work is rooted in folklore and fairy tales as well as medieval and cultural history. Similar to the Dutch artist's triptych, which is rich with enchanted scenes of carnal desire, Maher's 'Night Garden' works explore and question the perils of life's temptations through the medium of charcoal and pencil embodied in the profiles of what she calls 'bestiary'. These 'bestiary' figures are fusions of human, animal, bird and fruit combinations as depicted by Bosch in his interpretation of the Fall of Mankind. Maher then embellishes the negative spaces created by these creatures with decorative patterns and motifs ranging from such diverse sources as eighteenth century wallpaper to Pompeian panels and contemporary headscarves. The fragility of these 'beasts' is reinforced by the artist's choice of medium; the delicate charcoal dust. The Night Garden Drawings continue to influence Maher's work and have provided her with fertile material for her forthcoming solo exhibition entitled, 'The Music of Things', which will take place in the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, 12 November to 23 December, 2009. This new body of work will comprise "film drawings" (a new departure for Maher), limited edition prints and two sculptural works.