Paddy Graham is warily self-critical as an artist, a quality that, while not unusual, is by no means universal, writes Aidan Dunne
With a pattern of work and exhibition that has continued pretty consistently since the mid1970s, Paddy Graham has been something like the conscience of Irish painting in the eyes of many. This was particularly true in the United States in the 1980s where, championed by Jack Rutberg and acclaimed by Donald Kuspit and other commentators, he was regarded as being vitally representative of contemporary Irish painting, rejecting bland academic and conservative pieties and engaging critically with issues surrounding cultural inheritance and identity. If flattering, this estimation inevitably entailed a certain level of pressure, not to mention critical scrutiny
Unravelling the sequence of carving on the stones has been challenging but has been helped by the fact that there are so many examples to study, writes Elizabeth Shee Twohig
