Commentaries

Review Taken from:

The Irish Futurists and Figurative Painting in Irish Art

By Susan Stairs Published 1990

For sheer exuberance of colour, there can be few artists painting in the country today whose work would surpass Walsh’s. Obviously influenced by Matisse, his colour is, in some instances, even more vibrant and intense. Colour is the detail which concerns him, rather than subject matter or composition. His figures are made of composite areas of pure colour, which are rendered with firm decisiveness. There is fluidity and movement and spontaneous flow of design, which results in a finished work of tremendous power.

Walsh’s work is distinctly European tradition, having no recognisable relationship with Irish painting. His primary influences lie with the Fauvist techniques of expression through colour, and the concentration of colours in a particular order. He attempts to condense situations or sensations through the use of pure pigment. The finished composition is never intended to a personal interpretation of definite mood and is, therefore, an individual declaration of feeling. Their fundamental nature is passionate and sensual. They are lasting, permanent and visually electrifying.