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Robert Ballagh , Irish, b.1943

Title

Upstairs No.4 – The Studio

Date1989

MediumOil on shaped canvas

Dimensions

198 x 152 cm

Credit LinePresented, 2017

Object numberNGI.2017.6

DescriptionUpstairs No.4 – The Studio completed a series of works in which Ballagh recorded his, and by extension the practising artist’s, living and working environment, and investigated the depiction of the architectural interior (Ballagh trained to be an architect). The series had begun in 1978 with 'Inside No.3', which featured a female nude, Ballagh’s wife Betty, on the spiral staircase in the couple’s home, 3 Temple Cottages, Broadstone (also the house into which Betty was born). The painting eschewed traditional Renaissance perspective, while referencing Duchamp’s 'Nude Descending a Staircase'. It was followed in 1981 by 'Inside No.3, After Modernisation', and the following year 'Upstairs No.3', in which in which Ballagh again addressed the traditional representation of the nude in Western art. 'Upstairs No.4 – The Studio' marked the acquisition by the couple of the adjacent property, the upstairs of which the artist took as his studio. Inspired in part by Brian Friel’s play, 'Philadelphia, Here I Come', the picture is a double self-portrait, in which Ballagh appears in two guises. On the left, he presents himself as a private figure, recently returned from a trip to Japan. On the right, he acknowledges his public image, alluding to his political activism and republican sensibility.
Inscriptioncentre (on spine of red book on shelf): UPSTAIRS NO.4
ProvenancePresented, Private Collection, 2017