Basil Rakoczi

Galerie Raymond Suillerot, Paris;
Private collection

Original canvas. Some old frame abrasions to the upper left edge and the surface appears slightly dirty; otherwise the work is in good original condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a simple wood frame.
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Basil Rakoczi and the White Stag Group made a significant contribution to Irish art when they arrived in Dublin in 1940, bringing a radical avant-garde outlook largely unknown to the artistic landscape of Ireland at that time. The importance of their arrival had been largely overlooked in Irish art history until the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition dedicated to the White Stag Group in 2005.

The defining feature of the group was, as S. B. Kennedy wrote, their ‘combined interest in the artistic avant-garde with an enthusiasm for the newly emerging discipline of psychotherapy’ (IMMA, White Stag Group exh. cat., 2005, p.13). Rakoczi, of Hungarian-Irish parentage and born in London, moved to Ireland at the outbreak of World War II with like-minded friends Herbrand Ingouville-Williams and Kenneth Hall. The trio formed the White Stag Group to promote the advancement of subjectivity in psychological analysis and art. They staged exhibitions in Dublin regularly, notably featuring the work of Mainie Jellett and Patrick Scott, until the group disbanded in 1945. During this time they swiftly ingratiated themselves in the Dublin community and their lasting impact was to bring a fresh perspective to a conservative art world. They ‘paved the way for a broader consensus in Irish painting’ and a more liberal artistic atmosphere in the 1950s and 60s under which a new generation of artists could flourish (S.B. Kennedy, op. cit., p.43).