CAG.2801 William Crozier, The River Boundary (Lough Hyne), 1988, oil on canvas, 142 x 152 cm. Presented to the State, 2012 (AIB Art Collection). © the artist’s estate.

We’re heading west and taking in a lyrical landscape for this WORK OF THE WEEK!

Imbued with characteristic energy and vitality, The River Boundary (Lough Hyne) by William Crozier offers an escape into the natural world. The title provides a clue to the location – Lough Hyne, near Skibbereen, which has for centuries been acknowledged as a special place. Connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow channel – The Rapids – it is Ireland and Europe's first Marine Nature Reserve.

The painting itself seems to inhabit a boundary between water and dry land, with tree forms mimicking kelp and the horizon line occupying a spot high on the picture plane. It all seems to glow like the Lough’s bioluminescent waters. Dating to 1988, it is an expression of the artist’s search for a new language in figurative painting, his sumptuous use of colour and form drawing in and enveloping the viewer. We have entered the landscape.

Irish-Scots artist William Crozier (1930-2011) was educated at the Glasgow School of Art and would himself later teach at Bath, London, New York, and Winchester. A member of Aosdána, he divided his time between Hampshire and his beloved West Cork. In 1991, and in collaboration with the Royal Hibernian Academy, we mounted a retrospective exhibition of his work. More recently, the Irish Museum of Modern Art presented William Crozier: The Edge of the Landscape (2017-18) in association with West Cork Arts Centre.

The River Boundary (Lough Hyne) by William Crozier features in lucid abnormalities (until April 2021) in our Gibson Galleries on Floor 1. Open daily and free entry.

Tune in to The Arts House with Elmarie Mawe on Cork’s 96FM and C103FM every Sunday morning as Conor Tallon chats with assistant curator Michael Waldron about each WORK OF THE WEEK!

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