Lot 51: Yann Renard Goulet RHA (1914-1999) No Surrender

Yann Renard Goulet RHA (1914-1999) No Surrender Bronze, 95cm high x 56cm wide (37.5 x 22") Provenance: From a private collection, Co. Galway

Yann Renard Goulet, originally from St. Nazaire in Brittany, moved to Bray, Co. Wicklow in 1947 to escape the French authorities following some trouble regarding his Breton separatist activities. He had studied on a scholarship at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in the 1930s, and on arrival in Ireland he began making concrete blocks by day and teaching art classes at night. Recognition came in 1952 when he won the commission for the Custom House Memorial competition, and became an Irish citizen in the same year. In 1953 he exhibited at the International Hotel in Bray alongside Paul Henry and Mabel Young, and three years later his bust of David Kelly was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. He received various commissions for memorials around the country during his career, was a founding member of Aosdána and was elected Professor of Sculpture at the RHA in 1986.