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Archive for the ‘News’ category
Just for Christmas.
December 11th, 2011Watch worn by ‘Ulysses’ character clocks up €60,000 at auction
December 6th, 2011Watch worn by ‘Ulysses’ character clocks up €60,000 at auction
Ulysses Watch.
MICHAEL PARSONS – Irish Times.
A GOLD pocket watch worn by a character in James Joyce’s Ulysses sold at an Adam’s auction in Dublin last night for €60,000 – five times its highest estimate of €12,000.
The bidding opened at €5,000 but rose quickly. There was applause in the St Stephen’s Green saleroom when the hammer came down. The buyer was a private collector in Co Kildare who told The Irish Times afterwards he had bought it for his son who was “born on Bloomsday” (June 16th). The man said his son “won’t be getting it as a gift but he will inherit it – which I hope won’t be for a long time”.
James O’Halloran, managing director of Adam’s, said the watch was one of those very unique items that are “very difficult to value”. He was “surprised and delighted by the price achieved and very pleased for the vendor”.
Adam’s auctioneers said the watch had been consigned for sale by a descendant of John O’Connell, a Dubliner who featured in the novel and was described wearing the watch. He was the caretaker of Glasnevin Cemetery and appears in chapter six under his own name.
Joyce described him as “a portly man” and “a real good sort” and wrote: “The caretaker hung his thumbs in the loops of his gold watch chain and spoke in a discreet tone to their vacant smiles” during the funeral of Paddy Dignam.
In “real life” John O’Connell lived with his wife Mary Ann and their 17 children at the entrance to Glasnevin Cemetery. He died in 1925 and his watch became a family heirloom. Made of 18ct gold, it hangs on a 12-inch chain decorated with an amber stone to the T-bar and was known as “the Ulysses watch” by the family.
Mr. Bloom - Roger Cummiskey
It had a pre-sale estimate of €8,000-€12,000. Large crowds attended the auction. During the evening a Jack B Yeats painting sold for €480,000. Jazz Babies, painted in 1929, had an estimate of €500,000-€800,000. It was last sold at auction by Sotheby’s 30 years ago for £14,000.
The Dead
December 5th, 2011
The James Joyce Centre and Sweny’s Pharmacy are delighted to announce our first ever ‘Dead’ Dinner
Friday January 6th 2012, 8pm
The Gresham Hotel, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
Join us in the lavish surrounds of the Gresham Hotel as we celebrate Joyce’s masterpiece ‘The Dead’.
You’ll be treated to a dinner inspired by the meal served by the Misses Morkans and entertained by some of Dublin’s most renowned Joycean performers.
Established in 1817, the Gresham Hotel is one of the capital’s finest 4 star hotels well known for its luxury, charm and character – and the setting for one of the most famous scenes in modern literature!
‘The Dead’, the final and longest story of Joyce’s collection Dubliners, is recognised as one of the most accomplished short stories in the English language and stands as a deft, subtle portrait of everyday life in turn-of-the-century Dublin.
The story takes place on the evening of the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, 1904 and takes as its subject the epiphanic revelation of Gabriel Conroy, who, with his wife Gretta, has retired to the Gresham Hotel following the Misses Morkan’s annual musical gathering at 15 Ushers Island.
Peering out at the snow through a window of the hotel, Gabriel is faced with the realisation that the shallowness of his feelings for his wife have been overshadowed by the ghostly presence of her former sweetheart Michael Furey. The scene is both a beautiful rendering of one man’s spiritual awakening and a significant moment which deepens the structural unity of a collection concerned with the moral and metaphysical paralysis of a people.
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
Under Construction by roger cummiskey
GENERAL TORRIJOS
December 1st, 2011
The Artist - Roger Cummiskey.
Jose María Torrijos 1791 – 1831
GENERAL TORRIJOS
General Torrijos, although from Madrid, is tied to Andalusia for his many activities here. From Andalusia he revived the fight for freedom against the despotic king Fernando VII. It was in Andalusia where he died, in Málaga, executed by those he fought against.
Jose María de Torrijos y Uriarte was born in Madrid the 20th March, 1791. He came from a noble family and joined the army very young, first as a pageboy for King Carlos IV at ten years old and when he was thirteen he achieved the title of captain of the Ultonian regiment, though he couldn’t exert it due to his young age. In 1808, he enrolled in the Academy of Alcalá de Henáres, where he was surprised by the Independence war, fighting bravely from the beginning against the French. He was promoted to colonel in 1813 and married Luisa Sáenz de Viniegra in Badajoz. He obtained all types of military decorations and a proposition from the Duke of Wellington for Brigadier, which materialised at the end of the war, a war where he fought under the orders of his future executioner, Captain Vicente González Moreno.
The re-establishment of absolutism annulled the constitution of 1812 and because of this he joined the Liberal Party and refused to leave for América to fight against the Independentists. Andalusia was vital for any attempted rebellion, the troops being concentrated here ready to leave for América where the colonies were fighting against the Spanish. In 1817, Torrijos participated in the attempted rebellion of General Lacy to raise the army in Andalusia and because of this was taken to prison, first to the Castle of Santa Bárbara in Alicante and later to the Santo Oficio prison in Murcia.
With the victorious rebellion of Riego in 1820 he was set free and the Liberal Triennium named him commissioner of war at the beginning of 1823, directing the resistance against the “One hundred thousand children of San Luis” the French army being sent by the European powers to replace the absolutists in the Spanish government.
After being defeated in Cartagena, Torrijos and his wife were forced to flee to Marseilles and from there to England (1824), where he contacted with the rest of the liberals in exile.
In England he formed a friendship with John Sterling, a well known landowner who presented him to Robert Boyd, ex_official of the English army in India who had fought in the Greek Independence war. Boyd, a romantic like Torrijos, committed himself to help him recover the freedom in Spain through his good name and fortune.
With the support of the “Apostles of Cambridge”, a radical society of exiled liberal Spaniards in England, and commissioned by the “Board of directors of the Spanish Uprising”, they arrived in Gibraltar in September 1830, disembarking on the 9th, meeting with old collaborators such as the ex_president of the Spanish parliament, Manuel Flores Calderón, the ex_minister of war, Francisco Fernández Golfín and other important military figures. After deciding that a rebellion of the army against the absolutist government would be hard to achieve, they attempted a raid on Algeciras on the 24th October and another on the 11th November. As both of them failed, Torrijos was forced to hide in boats anchored in Gibraltar.
At the end of January 1831 they took action against La Linea of which they took hold, but this initial success failed again faced with Algeciras. At the end of February another attempted rebellion cost the life of Colonel Manzanares.
Seeing it impossible to act in the Gibraltar region because of the extreme vigilance, Torrijos received with high spirits the secret letters of a “very confidential” friend, with the nickname of Viriato he informed him that the best place to disembark was Vélez Málaga, and that with the presence of the Málaga troops first, and later those of all Andalusia, they would rebel against the King Fernando VII.. In fact this was a trap planned by his old comrade-in-arms and now Governor of Málaga Vicente González Moreno, who under the name of “Viriato” took advantage of Torrijos´s impatience and planned his capture.
On the 30th November 1831 they left Gibraltar in various hulls only to find they had been deceived when they reached the point of Calaburras and found the Neptune ship waiting for them. Because of this they were forced to disembark in Mijas Costa (Charcón beach) and flee inland. First they arrived in Mijas where they received several gunshots from the armed military forces and then crossed the mountains to Alhaurín de la Torre where they had the same welcome. After being persecuted by the infantry they found refuge in a farmhouse belonging to the Count of Mollina, with an ancient Arab tower near the old road to Cártama. Once there, surrounded by the troops sent by González Moreno and after taking both generals, he was forced to surrender along with his 52 men on the 5th December, being captured and sent to Málaga.
In Málaga, in different jails, they lived the same length of time that it took González Moreno to send a messenger to Madrid, General Narváez. He returned on the 10th December with an execution order given by the decadent and bloodthirsty Fernando VII, who wrote with his own hand: “Execute them all. I, the King”.
At 11:30 am on the 11th December 1831 on the Málaga beaches of San Andrés, in front of the Carmen district, they were all executed without exception, including the Englishman Robert Boyd and a young cabin boy from the boat. Flores Calderón and Fernández Golfín also perished along with other soldiers and sailors. Torrijos was denied his last request which was to give the order to open fire and die without their eyes covered.
Their bodies were buried in the San Miguel cemetery, except for Robert Boyd who went to the recently inaugurated English cemetery, until 1842, when the city council of Málaga built on popular demand a funeral monument (an obelisk) which was erected in their honour in Plaza Riego, today Plaza de la Merced, in front of the native house of the painter Pablo Ruiz Picasso, under which they all rest. A cross also commemorates the place of his death, now a promenade.
The Governor González Moreno, who from then on was known as “The executioner of Málaga” received for his treason a promotion to General Lieutenant and the post of Captain-General of Granada. When the Carlista war broke out he died assassinated by army volunteers in 1839.
The sacrifice of Torrijos and his comrades was not in vain and they were remembered constantly in the following years for after the death of King Fernando VII in 1833, the liberals obtained the power and the widow of Torrijos, Dª Luisa Carlota Sáenz de Viniegra was honoured with the title of Countess of Torrijos. His death, and the death of Mariana Pineda, was one of the last caused by the absolutism in Andalusia.
From an article by the FRD, Mijas.
Plaza de la Merced, oil 50 x 70 cm. Roger Cummiskey.
BEST OF THE REST FOR DECEMBER 2011
November 30th, 2011The Artist - Roger Cummiskey.
BAREBRUSH PRESENTS - BEST OF THE REST FOR DECEMBER 2011
—paintings, drawings, sculptures & photographs
—SELECTED FROM OVER 340 ARTWORKS, 56 ARTISTS WORLD-WIDE
Vote for December 02. Thank You.
YES! Papli got second place!
Papli by Milly - R Cummiskey
YESSIR, c’est mon Dada!
New York, December 2011 — BAREBRUSH presents Best-of-the-Rest calendar for December 2011. Barebrush offers the best art gallery and art contest, online since 2006. A total of 345 artworks were entered by 56 artists world-wide. Guest curator, Ilene Skeen, Barebrush.com, chose 31 artworks for the 31 days in December. Viewers can see the Best-of-the-Rest calendar on the website and vote in the monthly poll for their favorite. Winners of the poll are determined by the public vote.The 31 artists represented in December, 2011 in day order are: 1 Cynthia Angeles, 2 Roger Cummiskey, 3 Jean Marcellino, 4 Malcolm McCoull, 5 Justin Austin, 6 Ione Citrin, 7 Laura Warburton, 8 A. Galban, 9 Jacqui Morgan, 10 Guadalupe Herrera, 11 Jon Rettich, 12 Geoffrey Stein, 13 Donald Kolberg, 14 Malorie Shannon, 15 Robert Nizamov, 16 Chuck Miller, 17 Haydee Torres, 18 Dan McCormack, 19 Alan Appel, 20 Gary Manzo, 21 Jacqueline Saunders, 22 Joseph Mays, 23 Robert Nizamov, 24 Steven Gorney, 25 Gil Conradis, 26 Jean Marcellino, 27 Angelique Moselle Price, 28 David Schulz, 29 Donelli J. DiMaria, 30 Pacifico Palumbo, 31 Eddie Torres.
About the December 2011 Calendar
We’ll Get There—The December 2011 Best-of-the-Rest Barebrush calendar was selected by Ilene Skeen, founder and CEO of Barebrush.com. Here we see Barebrush sensibilities applied to portraits, clothed figures, animals, landscapes, still-life and abstracts. The January 2012 Best-of-the-Rest calendar will be selected by Joyce Pommer, founder and director of Franklin 54 Gallery in the Chelsea art district of New York City. When Ms. Skeen was asked what she meant by “Barebrush sensibilities,” she had this to say:
When I started Barebrush in 2006, I worried a lot about spammers and pornographers, who have a terrible reputation for being nasty people whom you don’t want to know. I tried to structure Barebrush to reward professionalism, hard work, integrity, honesty, fairness and simple niceness. All along, the Barebrush nude calendars have kept getting better and better, but the proof of the success of my efforts may well be most evident in this new calendar series, the Best-of-the-Rest.
When I looked at the art offered by Barebrush Artists in these new genres, I realized that I had succeeded in attracting the very nicest group of artists you would ever want to know. Here are people who love people and love life. They love being artists themselves, and their representations of the world are a blessing.
There are many portraits in December, but the Best-of-the-Rest begins the month with an appropriate “big picture” of the human condition. The Winding Road is an oil painting by Cynthia Angeles of Washington, DC. Although the road appears straight in the image, the trees are overwhelming and the human tiny. The future, implied by possible twists and turns beyond the horizon, is unknown. Undaunted, people keep going. That’s what we do, and sometimes we have a great time doing it. There may be regrets, but also no turning back and few do-overs. Ms. Skeen added, “To me, this painting represents the indomitable human spirit, and in particular, the spirit of Barebrush Artists.”
Two famous personages grace the December calendar: Portrait of Sandra Day O’Connor, an oil of the now-retired Supreme Court Justice. It was painted from life by Barebrush Featured Artist, Jean Marcellino of New York. This sensitive portrait is hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC as part of its permanent collection. Marcellino also displays her sensitivity in an interesting three-head pencil study, Three Phases of Anna Marie (day 26).The second personage portrait, Salvador Dali II by Featured Artist Angelique Moselle Price of Nashville, TN, is a whimsical, mixed media take on the eccentric artist showing the tips of his mustache transformed into flowers.
Other portraits include a watercolor by Barebrush Featured Artist, Jacqui Morgan, Mimi Vang Olsen with her Daughters. Featured Artist, Roger Cummiskey offers a delightful “abstract” child’s colored drawing, Papli by Milly, inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Central to the calendar in spirit and in fact is Ying Yang by Malorie Shannon of St. Augustine, FL. Looking closely at all of the works is a joy. One might laugh out loud at the humorous symbolism of the pinhole camera print, Bridget_L_10-11-09–3AE by Barebrush Featured Artist, Dan McCormack of upstate New York and the satire of D.I.Y. #2, an oil still-life by Barebrush Featured Artist, Donelli DiMaria of New Mexico. Animals are well represented in Best-of-the-Rest: Duke and True, a drawing of greyhounds by Barebrush Featured Artist, Jon Rettich of New York City; roosters, Trio De Gallos, an acrylic by Guadalupe Herrera of Houston, TX; and an oil, Box Turtle by Gil Conradis of Melbourne, FL. Chuck Miller, of Corsicanna, TX, gives us more good-natured humor with an oil, Size 9, in his words, “Showing more than is actually there to see.”
Ms. Skeen concluded:
I am very proud and also in awe. It’s been a while on this path, but I feel that maybe the journey has just begun.
Three artists are making their calendar debut: Laura Warburton of Toronto, Canada with an abstract, Beside Myself; Gary Manzo of Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, with a digital offering, Double Sailor; and Steven Gorney of New York City, a pastel, Henry in a Straw Hat.
About the Barebrush Art Calendar Contests
Each of the artists selected for the calendar receives two (2) complimentary listings. The public may vote for “The People’s Choice” the poll which includes all of the art in the calendar. The top three artists in “The People’s Choice” receive one (1) complementary listing. Winners announced January 1st.Winning art is historic and is viewable in the calendar archives (dating from 2006). Winning art becomes a permanent part of the history of Barebrush.com. In addition, each artwork’s detail page show the date and curator of each calendar win as part of its Barebrush Provenance. The Barebrush program of retiring artworks which have been selected for three calendars is designed to encourage all artists to show their best new work and keep their online galleries fresh and interesting.
The goal of Barebrush is to increase the public awareness, acceptance and appreciation of the art of the nude. Online since 2006.
 Papli by Milly by Roger Cummiskey |
Happy Thanksgiving.
November 24th, 2011
Christmas Shopping.
November 19th, 2011Artful Giving.
The perfect gift for everyone.
Greetings from Roger & Dolores.
Children playing. - R. Cummiskey.
Postcards: 10 for 10.00; postage at cost.
Choose an original Print here. Give the gift of Art!
Nobody likes my Santa!
Papa Noel by Roger Cummiskey, oil, 50 x 70 cm.
AIA News Sheet
November 11th, 2011
Luminosity
October 17th, 2011The Artist - Roger Cummiskey.
Luminosity
A new high quality exhibition features 10 works by two members of the Andalusian International Artists Group which commences on 01st November and will remain open until the 28th of November.
Roger Cummiskey from Ireland and Mijas Costa and Roger Rodriguez Ayala from Cuba, exhibit different techniques and styles, including oil and acrylic on canvas, watercolors and ink on paper.
The exhibition takes place at the galería of restaurante LUCIA, Calle Maestra Angles Aspiazu, 17, Fuengirola, Malaga, Spain – up the road from the three horse fountain.
The gallery owners congratulated the artists for the quality of the exhibits, and highlighted the good work being done by the AIA. “The artworks bring a fresh look for Autumn. They are in complete contrast to each other and yet are in harmony. It promises to be a delightful exhibition.”
The AIA-Group was formed seven years ago by professional and dedicated visual artists from around the World, and is based in Andalucía. Further information is available from the AIA web site www.aia-artgroup.com or the Chairman at 952592652.
Roger Rodriguez Ayala was born in Pinar del Rio in Cuba in 1957. He graduated from La Facultad de Arte y Letras de la Universidad de La Habana.
Critics describe his art as naive, calm and full of tenderness, an important message for peace. In his world of art there is a great message of love with a very deep sense of innocence. Beauty and humanity shine through.
The paintings of expressive faces contain a duality of joy and sorrow, of light and dark, day and night, moon and sun, man and woman etc. Several of the paintings express a silent melancholy or you could say thoughtfulness, pensiveness, awareness or whatever pops up, while you are having your conversations with the faces.
Ayala is a new member of the AIA. This is his first exhibition with the group.
Roger Cummiskey was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1944. He studied art at the National Collage for Art and Design in Dublin and has exhibited extensively around the World representing Ireland at the Florence Biennale and in International exhibitions in Stockholm, London and New York.
Cummiskey´s paintings take their themes and titles from the wanderings and writings of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Miguel de Cervantes.
Cummiskey is chairman of the AIA and also a founder member.
This Exhibition is supported by Blevins Franks, Financial Advisors.
Photos from the private preview.
Ziyii
October 14th, 2011The Artist - Roger Cummiskey.
Les demoiselles de Dublin
This is a new online gallery website that I think you might like.
They are running two galleries with my images.
Abstract and
James Joyce themed.
The slide show will run as a continuous loop and hence, if you like my images, you can use them as an alternative to your current computer screen saver.
Well try it out and see what you think!
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. Oscar Wilde.
