PATRICK HICKEY | STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS

It is as a print-maker, and his contributions to its advancement in Ireland, that Patrick Hickey is chiefly known. He founded the Graphic Studio in Dublin in 1960, represented Ireland in international print biennials and exhibitions, and designed postage stamps and banknotes for the Irish government. 

Born in the Northwest Frontier in India, now Pakistan, Hickey moved to Ireland in 1948 and after studying architecture at UCD, worked for Scott, Tallon and Walker in the 1950s and 60s. As a painter, he exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and held shows in Dublin, with the Dawson, Taylor and Caldwell galleries. Fellow painter and print-maker Elizabeth Rivers commented on Hickey's 'original and convincing use of colour' in his paintings. The present work and lot 121 reveal Hickey's stylised and modern painting technique, and his formal concerns linked to his print-making practice.