Michael Kane

Dublin-born Michael Kane spent his formative years in Ashford Co. Wicklow. He studied at the National College of Art in the late 1950s and learned printmaking techniques at Graphic Studio Dublin. He was involved in the establishment of the influential Independent Artists’ Group in 1960 and was a co-founder of Project Arts Centre in 1967. He founded and edited the art and literary magazine Structure in 1972. He was one of the first artists to be elected a member of Aosdána. One of a group of Irish artists who came to the fore in the mid-1980s, his work has been described as ‘new expressionist’. It straddles abstraction and figuration but cannot be pigeon-holed into either of those conventional canons. His vividly expressive prints and paintings reflect his interest in classical mythology and European painting movements. As Aidan Dunne wrote in a review of Kane’s 2017 exhibition Modality of the Visible at Dublin City Gallery: the Hugh Lane: ‘ The people in his paintings often seem caught up in feelings and roles that are beyond their control, which of course accords with mythic archetypes.’. He revisits themes and ideas and the development of his work has been a circular evolution rather than a linear progression. An artist of talent and integrity, his own personal life and the universal cares and preoccupations of humanity are ever-present themes in his work.