From: The South African Art Times
The passing of Aidan Walsh
2009-07-16
Durban artist, Aidan Walsh died last Saturday of a heart attack, after a
long battle with illness and cancer. Walsh, who founded the successful Walsh
Marais Gallery in Durban and spent many years as the curator of the NSA
gallery (now the KZNSA), was also a respected artist in his own right. Walsh
was known for his watercolours of bleak landscapes and historical buildings
and was once commissioned to produce a portrait of former president, Nelson
Mandela. Along with partner of over forty years, artist Andrew Verster,
he was a central figure in the Durban art scene.
In an obituary for Tonight, friend and fellow artist Marianne Meijer
says Walsh was “a gentle giant of the art world...In his earlier
days he was the life and soul at parties, sometimes dancing on the table,
at other moments sitting quietly and having an intimate chat.”
From Tonight online:
Walsh was a giant in art
July 16, 2009
By Marianne Meijer
Durban artist Aidan Walsh died last week on July 11. He and his life-long
partner, well-known artist Andrew Verster, were the backbone of Durban's
art community.
During the past year Walsh bravely fought a battle with ill-health. Born
in Durban, 1932, where he has worked most of his life, Walsh was trained
at the Natal Technical College and later in London at the Hammersmith
School of Art.
He began Durban's Walsh Marais Gallery dedicated to regular monthly exhibitions
of contemporary art, showing, among others, Walter Battiss, Cecily Sash,
Patrick O'Connor and Andrew Verster.
A large number of today's established artists were given their first
shows at the Walsh Marais - among them are well known names like Bronwen
Findlay, Malcolm Christian and Paul Stopforth.
Primarily known for his seemingly desolate landscapes and outwardly empty
buildings, he was also known for his fascination with places of history
- not only historic spaces, buildings or sites, but also those spaces
that hold memories.
He lived and worked in Paris in 1989, 1994 and 1998 and has worked fulltime
since his return from his first sojourn in Paris.
He painted Parisian churches, gargoyles, empty parks and graves of long-
gone important people. The many owners of his paintings can be very proud
to own his art work.
When Walsh staged an exhibition people came to visit in droves. His work
fired their imagination.
He used to say: "I am drawn to stone - stone figures in parks, religious
figures in churches and temples, rock formations, stone in decay, silent
empty houses, dark churches, empty landscapes. I only paint things which
affect me. If something does not touch me; it is not worth the effort."
He was influential in the South African art scene since 1961, as a gallerist
and curator. His work is in the Durban Art Gallery, the Pretoria Art Museum,
the Natal Technikon, the Wooltru Collection, France, UK, India, Australia
and New Zealand. Aidan Walsh was not only a fantastic artist, he was so
much more … a gentle giant in the art world. In sickness and in
health he was loved and respected and his death leaves an enormous emptiness.
There will be a funeral service for Aidan Walsh in the chapel at Nazareth
House on Monday July 20 at 4pm.
Would friends please bring a flower or two from their garden. At 5pm
on the same day you are invited to a celebration of his life at the KZNSA
Gallery, with music and song, poetry and words.On July 26, Walsh's birthday,
Verster will plant a tree in his memory at the KZNSA.
Article published online at: http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=356&fArticleId=5085476
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Artist:
AIDAN WALSH
Title: Untitled
Size: 70 x 70 cm
Media: Oil
Price on request Framed
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