Lot 113: Alice Maher (b.1956) THE CITY and RUNNING GIRL, 1994 signed and inscribed on reverse of canvas oil and acrylic on canvas with a cast bronze

Alice Maher (b.1956) THE CITY and RUNNING GIRL, 1994 signed and inscribed on reverse of canvas oil and acrylic on canvas with a cast bronze sculpture (unique) 249 by 130cm., 98 by 51in. Exhibited: Alice Maher: Familiar', Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 11 January - 18 February 1995 and the Orchard Gallery, Derry, 25 February - 25 March 1995 Literature: Cecile Bourne, 'Interview with Alice Maher', pages 22-27 in Familiar, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, 1995, page 25 and illustrated page 20; Aidan Dunne, 'Ambiguous Images of Familiarity', The Tribune Magazine, 8 January 1995; Aidan Dunne, 'Visual Art', The Tribune Magazine, 24 March 1996, page 15, illustrated; Medb Ruane, 'Too close to call' (review of the Glen Dimplex Award nominees at IMMA), The Sunday Times, 31 March 1996, illustrated; Alice Maher, Necklace of Tongues, limited edition artist's book, Coracle Publishing, Clonmel, 2001 Aidan Dunne described Maher's 'Familiar' exhibition as consisting of a 'series of tall, large paintings ... each accompanied by its 'familiar', a sculptural object, anything from a couple of inches to a couple of yards in size'. He went on to describe the houses depicted in The City as 'simplified representations of all the buildings - and in one case, a tent - that she [Maher] has lived in. They make up a freeform village of indeterminate scale. It could be made of building blocks, or it might be life sized. It's accompanied by a bronze of a running girl, running apparently, straight out of the wall'. Maher's sketches for this work were later reproduced in a limited edition artist's book, Necklace of Tongues, in which she labels each of the buildings represented with their location: Frankfurt, Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Belfast, Harlem and so on. Speaking about the work in an interview, Maher commented: 'I wanted the viewer to feel either tiny and able to get inside and run around in that space, or to feel gigantic and able to pick up and change around the shapes at will. The fact that the pictures [The City and Familiar] are so tall and thin encourages this feeling of vertigo and invites the kind of engagement you refer to, like playing on video game where you experience 'getting into' the space on a flat screen in front of you' (in interview with Cecile Bourne, 1994). Born in Tipperary, Alice Maher studied at the University of Limerick before attending the Crawford College of Art, Cork, where she studied Fine Art. In 1986 she obtained a Masters in Fine Art from the University of Ulster and later studied painting, at the San Francisco Art Institute. She has held numerous solo exhibitions throughout Ireland and abroad and is represented in most major public collections including the Hugh Lane Gallery, IMMA, OPW and the Arts Council of Ireland.