Rita A Donagh (born 30 April 1939) is a British artist, known for her realistic paintings and painstaking draughtsmanship.

Early life and education

Donagh was born in

Wednesbury Wednesbury ( ) is a market town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England; it was historically in Staffordshire. It is located near the source of the River Tame, West Midlands, River Tame and ...

to an English mother and an Irish father and grew up in

Darlaston Darlaston is an industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is located near Bilston, Walsall, Wednesbury, Willenhall and Tipton. It was historically part of Staffordshire. Topography Darlaston i ...

(then Staffordshire, now West Midlands). Donagh began taking classes in life drawing at Bilston College of Further Education in 1954. She studied fine arts at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

. Donagh taught at the

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick un ...

where she met Richard Hamilton, whom she later married. She also taught at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

, the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, and

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by ...

Career

Her first solo show was at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1972. The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester held a retrospective (which toured) in 1977. In the 1960s and 1970s, her work was largely conceptual with her Irish ancestry contributing to the subject of many works depicting the political situation in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Rita Donagh's work on the H Block prisons in Northern Ireland was shown with her husband Richard Hamilton, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1984. Hamilton's influence of

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

and

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. Oil paint also has practical advantages over other paints, mainly because it is waterproof. The earliest surviving ...

showed up in her works of the 1970s. Later, she focused on the human figure including such work as Slade of 1994. She continued her interest in politics with works such as ''Downing Street Declaration'' (1993) which included a Hamilton-esque, televised image of Prime Minister

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

. In 1994 she had a solo exhibition at Cornerhouse, Manchester and the preview on 13 October coincided with the Loyalist's in Northern Ireland calling a ceasefire. Donagh, who was widowed in 2011, lives and works in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. Her work is in the permanent collection of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* 1972 - Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London * 1975 - '''Display, The Gallery, London * 1977 - ''Rita Donagh Paintings and Drawings,'' Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, Touring to Central Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, Belfast; Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford * 1982 - Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London * 1983 -Orchard Gallery, Derry * 1984 - ICA Gallery, London and Central School of Art and Design, London * 1994 - ''197419841994'',

Cornerhouse, Manchester Cornerhouse was a cinema and contemporary visual arts centre next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, from 1985 to 2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a bookshop, bar and café. Cornerhouse was ...

, Camden Arts Centre, London; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Group exhibitions

* 1958 - ''Young Contemporaries'', London * 1959 - ''Young Contemporaries,'' London * 1960 - Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford * 1972 - John Moores Exhibition 8, Liverpool (prize-winner), and ''Drawings,''

Museum of Modern Art, Oxford Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. The gallery presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It has a national and international ...

* 1973 - ''I I English Artists,'' Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden and Kunsthalle, Bremen * 1974 - ''British Painting'', Hayward Gallery, London * 1975 - ''7th International Festival of Painting'', Cagnes sur Mer, France, and ''Contemporary British Drawings'', 13th Biennale, São Paulo, and ''Body and Soul'',

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 w ...

* 1976 - ''Arte Inglese Oggi,'' Palazzo Reale, Milan * 1978 - ''Hayward Annual '78'', Hayward Gallery, London, and Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, and ''Art for Society,'' Whitechapel Art Gallery, London * 1979 - ''European Dialogue'', Sydney Biennale * 1980 ''- The Newcastle Connection,'' Newcastle upon Tyne * 1983 - ''The Granada Connection,'' Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester * 1985 - ''Painting and Photography'', St. Martin's School of Art, London, and ''Hayward Annual '85'', Hayward Gallery, London * 1986 - Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London * 1987 - ''Attitudes to Ireland'', Tate Gallery, London * 1992 - ''A Centenary Exhibition'',

, and ''Declarations of War,'' Kettle's Yard, Cambridge * 1993 - ''Writing on the Wall,''

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

Gallery, London * 1996 - ''Face a l'Histoire'', Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris * 1998 - ''Lines of Desire,'' Oldham Art Gallery and Museum * 2001 - ''Closer Still'', The Winchester Gallery, Winchester * 2002 - ''Display,'' Tate Modern, London

Public collections

Arts Council Collection The Arts Council Collection is a national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art. It was founded in 1946. The collection continues to acquire works each year. The Arts Council Collection reaches its audience through loans to publ ...

, Hayward Gallery, London * British Council *

Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

* Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow *

* Ulster Museum - National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland * Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

* Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle upon Tyne *

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

The New Art Gallery Walsall The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery in the town of Walsall, in the West Midlands, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery and additiona ...

References

Bibliography

*''Rita Donagh: Paintings and Drawings'' (exhibition catalog, ed. M. Regan; Manchester, U. Manchester, Whitworth A.G., 1977) *''Rita Donagh 197419841994: Paintings and Drawings'' (exhibition catalog, essay Dr. Sarat Maharaj, Manchester, Cornerhouse, 1994) *''Civil Rights etc.: Rita Donagh and Richard Hamilton'' (exhibition catalog, Dublin, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Donagh, Rita 1939 births Living people British contemporary artists Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London Academics of Newcastle University Academics of the Slade School of Fine Art Academics of the University of Reading 20th-century British women painters 21st-century British women artists Alumni of King's College, Newcastle Artists from the West Midlands (county) English people of Irish descent People from Darlaston People from Wednesbury