UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Thursday, 5 September 2013 at 5.30 p.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY MR EAMONN CEANNT, Director of Capital Development, University College Dublin on 5 September 2013, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa on Robert Ballagh
President, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I
t gives me very great pleasure to present our next graduand who is today being conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Literature. The award is being given to honour a lifetime’s achievement in the Arts to an artist with a passion for literature.
That man is Robert Ballagh.
You may have seen Robert’s work on entering O’Reilly Hall. The portrait of James Joyce that UCD commissioned hangs in the foyer.
Robert is a Dubliner. Like Joyce before him, he has a great affinity with the city and prescribes a few chapters of Ulysses for those leaving Ireland as a cure for homesickness.
He was brought up in Ballsbridge and educated at Blackrock College where, before long, his rebel genes were well in evidence. In the late seventies he moved to Broadstone where he continues to live and work.
His talents are many. He studied architecture (but not at UCD), working subsequently as an engineering draughtsman and graphic designer. He played music with The Chessmen, and while playing a gig in Harcourt Street met the 16 year-old Betty Carabini; another true Dub, but this time of Italian extraction. Their partnership was one of love and loyalty that lasted until her untimely death in February 2011.
He retired from the Chessmen in 1967 at the age of 25 to become a full-time artist; selling his Fender bass guitar to a young musician just starting his own career with Skid Row, the legendary Phil Lynnott.
He had no home, no job, no prospects and he was broke. At Robert and Betty’s wedding there were 12 guests; no red carpet; no organist. Though determined to create decent art, Robert also realised that it would have to be a viable profession as he now had someone depending on him. This was a major turning point in Robert’s life and goes a long way to explain his subsequent artistic directions.
While working as a draughtsman to pay the rent, he had the first stirrings of a social conscience, seeing at first hand, blatant discrimination at his work-place. He has been a courageous and outspoken critic of social injustice and political ineptitude all his life. It is one of the reasons he is so well known; attracting strong praise and harsh criticism in equal measure.
His Republican beliefs are just as well known and date back to the infamous Section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act, under which RTE was prohibited from broadcasting the voices of members of prescribed organisations. An ardent supporter of the Peace Process and opposed to violence, Robert’s republicanism reflects the inclusive sentiments of the Proclamation of 1916. He has drawn the ire of many who have misunderstood his position and labelled him ‘wrongly’ as a supporter of the armed struggle.
He is passionate about politics, self-determination and sovereignty and highly critical of the influence of the EU on the lives of Irish citizens. He campaigned vigorously against the Lisbon Treaty and, more recently, as part of the Repudiate-The-Debt movement.
The involvement of so many poets, writers, musicians, actors, and artists during the 1916 uprising is a source of fascination to him. Not merely rebels but people of vision calling for a cultural revolution, for a transformation of both public and personal reality. He has played a major part in recalling their unique heroism, in particular at the time of the 75th anniversary when it was a source of embarrassment for many.
But it is in his artistic endeavours that Robert is best known.
He has designed stamps for An Post; 70 at the last count.
He designed the last set of banknotes prior to the introduction of the Euro. Up pops James Joyce on one of them, with a smile!! Cheekily he recently predicted that when the Euro collapses, the Irish government will issue blank banknotes instead to reflect our provincial status under a German led Euro; our sovereignty and aspirations gone.
He turned his hand to theatre sets in 1985 at the request of the Gate’s Michael Colgan designing at all levels; from small stages such as Andrews Lane to the very largest in Croke Park for the Special Olympics and across the world for Riverdance. But, as a supporter of the Palestinian cause, he boycotted the Riverdance visit to Israel.
Practicality and perfectionism is at the core of his artistic success, which he once said has been achieved "totally through perspiration, hard effort and practice". He has championed the cause of fellow artists and taken the Irish Government to the High Court to ensure their resale royalty rights.
His early works adopted the style of the Pop-Art movement.
Subsequent works such as My Studio, 1969 and the No 3 series set out to portray political events or to demystify art and articulate the process by which art happens. For Robert, art is a social product. Its integrity depends on its ability to respond honestly and accurately to the artist’s experience. Inside N0 3 with Female Nude Descending a Staircase overcame the conventional architectural perspective of his previous paintings and marked a turning round of his own approach to painting.
His artistic range and mediums used are impressive. Landscapes, abstracts, book-covers, silkscreens, acrylics, oils and even a few sculptures.
He has created iconic images that linger in the mind. His interpretation of Goya’s Third of May, David’s Rape of the Sabines and Delacroix’s Liberty on the Barricades, though painted in the early 70’s, are still well known to Irish art lovers. And more recently, his version of Walter Paget’s Birth of the Irish Republic.
But it is in portraiture that Robert is best known.
Like the Arnolfini Portrait by Van Eyck and Holbein’s Ambassadors, Robert’s portraits are not just likenesses of the sitter but are filled with symbolism and personal references that are unique to his subject.
One has only to think of the late great Louis le Brocquy in his studio; John B Keane stepping out of the picture plane to greet his audience; The inspirational and courageous Noel Browne crucified in his frame while standing on Connemara beach stones that spill out of the picture under his feet; or our own portrait of James Joyce on Sandymount Strand, pages from his great novels strewn on the sand, wearing clothes and rings that he owned and in a pose taken from one of his few known photographs. Joyce liked to dress up. Admire his attire. Look closely at the eyes. He had notoriously poor eyesight and was obliged to wear very strong glasses.
This attention to detail and intimate knowledge of his sitters are a hallmark of Robert’s portrait work.
His work is at once perfect in its detail and expressive in its storytelling. His portraits invite us to look into the heart and mind of the subject, the sitter posed into a setting that invites us to know them as a person – whether it is Fidel Castro draped in a robe of red or Bernadette Greevy with tape recorder and soundtrack.
Robert Ballagh’s vision, skill and dedication to his craft are some of the many reasons why he is, not only one of Ireland’s best known and most popular artists, but one of Ireland’s greatest painters as well.
UCD is proud to be awarding him with an honorary doctorate today.
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Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in Litteris; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.