Mary Swanzy

Born in Merrion Square in 1882 into a well-to-do Protestant family, Swanzy attended the RHA schools. By her early twenties she had mastered the academic style of painting and her work rapidly evolved. She interpreted and transformed various styles in a highly personal way. She was one of the first Irish artists to produce abstract work and is best known for her Cubist and Futurist paintings. After 1914 she exhibited regularly at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. She travelled widely in France, Italy and Eastern Europe, Samoa and the US. By 1946 she was included in exhibitions with Chagall, William Scott and Henry Moore but after this time her work fell into obscurity. IMMA honoured her with a major exhibition in 2018 /2019 stating that ‘her level of achievement, world travel and original thinking is unmatched in Irish art.’