Basil Blackshaw RUA HRHA (1932-2016) Landscape (2), c.1966 Oil on canvas, 100 x 130cm (391/4 x

Basil Blackshaw RUA HRHA (1932-2016) Landscape (2), c.1966Oil on canvas, 100 x 130cm (39¼ x 51")Exhibited: Irish Exhibition of Living Art, 1966, Cat. No. 23; Ulster's Painters, Arts Council of Northern Ireland Touring Exhibition, October 1967 - July 1968.Writing about the young Basil Blackshaw in 1957, John Hewitt observed: “Cézanne in the last year or so has been his universal measuring rod. Even his definition of Expressionism he broadens to include that master.” Blackshaw didn’t mean that Cézanne was an Expressionist in the sense of, say, German Expressionism. Looking at his own work what comes across strongly is that he not so much admired but was electrified by Cézanne’s hard-won capacity to combine the most fleeting and abstract of gestures with an absolutely solid compositional scheme, architectural in its certainty. This applies particularly to his landscapes, one of the main strands of Blackshaw’s art, and one that underlies the others: essentially animal and human figures.Cézanne was a liberating influence, even as his work resembled Cézanne’s less and less. Initially, in his use of impasto and blocks of colour there is an echo of Cézanne’s visualisation of nature as arrangements of spheres, cylinders and squares. But gradually, over time, he absorbed the lessons of Cézanne and made them completely his own, as in the case of this fine, expansive landscape. The location is not specified, but the curved ridge of the highland on the right relates the painting closely to studies of Divis Mountain, a source of inspiration and fascination for the artist at the time. (It’s cleverly echoed in the curve and angle of the barn more or less in the centre of the composition). And the palette of blues and ochres is distinctly Cézannesque. The son of a horse trainer, Blackshaw was born into a rural community south of Belfast, in many ways a remote world of “small farms and high hedgerows.” Involvement with animals - horses, terriers, lurchers, cockerels and more - was a way of life. Talking to Mike Catto in 1985, the artist dismissed any notion of rural gentility about his background: “Living in the country was bloody hard work.” He grew up in the midst of the busy farmyard bustle and later built his life around exactly that environment. His immersion in the countryside is complete and always shaped his vision of landscape. An early-blooming talent, he remains exceptional in having won the admiration of his artistic peers and a wide audience.Aidan Dunne, November 2023