CAG.2344 Brian Fay, Vermeer Lady Writing a Letter with Maid c.1670, 2007, ink on paper, 80 x 60 cm. Purchased, 2007. © the artist.

This WORK OF THE WEEK is all about connections!

On the surface, Vermeer Lady Writing a Letter with Maid c.1670 (2007) is a seemingly abstract ink drawing by Brian Fay.

Although it is a response to a painting by Johannes Vermeer – which was presented to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1987 by Sir Alfred and Lady Beit of Russborough House – it does not deal with the narrative or form of the Dutch Master’s work. Instead, it explores the materiality of Vermeer’s paint as it ages on its 350-year-old canvas. This is characteristic of Fay, who uses drawing as a means to examine the processes of time and our relationship to it.

This drawing has, in turn, recently prompted responses from artists Jamie Ashforth and Catherine Callanan in works currently showing in Drawing Connections (until 3 November) at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion.

Brian Fay, who was profiled on RTÉ Arena last week (7 October 2022), is a visual artist and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Technological University Dublin. He holds a PhD from Northumbria University and recently undertook a residency at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut.

Funded by the Arts of Council of Ireland, his new touring exhibition The Most Recent Forever is currently open at Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda until 12 November and will then travel to Limerick City Gallery of Art (1 December) and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre (18 February), Skibbereen.

Vermeer Lady Writing a Letter with Maid c.1670 (2007) by Brian Fay is featured in DRAWING ROOM until 4 December.

Open daily | Free entry

Tune into The Arts House with Elmarie Mawe on Cork’s 96FM and C103FM every Sunday morning as Conor Tallon chats with curator Michael Waldron about each WORK OF THE WEEK! Listen back to this week’s chat here:

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