The artist’s tagger background is evident in his skilled examination of colonialism and power
Conor Harrington’s Masters Of Money And Mirrors (2018) shows an American-coded patriot throwing something at a brown person with red dripping down them. That wasn’t an easy image to see in 2018.
Five years on, it’s even more jarring. But that’s kind of the point. If Harrington’s work makes you feel uncomfortable and a little bit unclean, that’s a legitimate response. He’s not a feel-good artist.
Harrington’s Masters Of Money And Mirrors is coming up for sale at Morgan O’Driscoll’s auction of Irish & International Art on Tuesday, April 9.
The painting (Lot 34: est. €40,000 to €60,000) was purchased from the artist by the current owner.
“We’ve sold prints by Harrington before,” Morgan O’Driscoll says. “But this is the first time we’ve handled one of his oil paintings.”
Born in Cork and educated in Limerick School of Art and Design, Harrington (b. 1980) is now based in London.
He made auction waves in 2015 when his painting Dance With The Devil (2013) sold for £77,500 (around €90,000) at Bonhams in London.
In 2022, a number of Harrington’s earlier works sold at Whyte’s in Dublin. Among them, A Thought For Lunch (c. 2004) fetched €11,000. Otherwise, his work has rarely been seen at auction in this country.
Harrington has a background as a street artist, moving from graffiti (proper illegal tagging) to sophisticated large-scale street art.
In 2021, Ardú Street Art Project brought Harrington back to his native Cork to paint a very large mural at the Grand Parade entrance to Bishop Lucey Park, opposite the gate to the English Market.
Conor Harrington completed a giant mural at Bishop Lucey Park, Cork, as part of Ardú Street Art Project 2021. Photo: John Beasley
With paint sponsored by Pat McDonnell Paints (140 litres of paint in 22 colours) and spray paint from Vibes & Scribes, Harrington painted a man setting a table in the manner of an 18th-century still-life.
This period chimes with the 1788 construction of the English Market, which took its name from the Protestant or “English” corporation in charge of the city.
Typically, Harrington used his Cork mural to give colonialism a kicking. The gigantic Georgian figure looms over the street.
“In my work I examine the role and legacy of the empire, and try to find parallels in contemporary culture,” Harrington wrote.
The dolls’ house in the painting is a reference to the housing crisis. The abundant fruit table is about to collapse under its own weight.
“I’m asking the question, to whom does power and plenty belong? Despite this historical foundation, my mural is ultimately about the balance of abundance and excess, and the fall which inevitably follows.”
The Irish art establishment has somewhat been snippy about Harrington’s work.
In 2014, Brian McAvera wrote in the Irish Arts Review: “There is little that is socio-political about his imagery. It’s a flamboyant, populist image stream, crammed with nudes, militia and a strong sense of the theatrical.”
In response to his record-breaking sale at Bonhams, John Mulcahy pointed towards Harrington’s years of association with “the London-based Lazarides Rathbone Gallery and fine-art printmaker, which has been organising solo exhibitions for Harrington in the US and elsewhere. Steve Lazarides built his business on promoting urban art and was Banksy’s agent until 2009”.
As in any walk of life, the road to success is paved with clever strategy.
The picture for sale at Morgan O’Driscoll, Masters Of Money And Mirrors, is part of Harrington’s series The Story Of Us And Them. The wider series, excluding this work, was exhibited in the Heni Gallery, London, in 2018.
As with many of Harrington’s works, the painting combines a realistic figure in historical costume, deliberately anachronistic as a male re-enactor, with abstract elements.
The flags in the painting are red, white and blue. These colours are strongly associated with America and Britain but represent “an imagined nation state”. There are stripes but no stars.
It’s technically proficient, with a touch of the tagger about it. Harrington isn’t letting us forget his graffiti roots.
The sale also includes Portrait Of A Lady (2013), an oil painting by Genieve Figgis (Lot 22: est. €30,000 to €50,000).
Figgis (b. 1972) is also an Irish artist of international renown whose work is rare as hens’ teeth in her own country.
Earlier this year, a small painting by Figgis, Lemon Queen (2013), sold at Whyte’s for €29,000.
See morganodriscoll.com
