In judging the outpourings of most of those who regularly write about art one could be forgiven the opinion that they must draw upon an armoury of dictionaries and lexicons in order to generate such verbosity. I’m relieved to say that for me the work of Paul Rattigan does not require such extensive word play, for, it seems that one word alone is sufficient in order to decode the work and that word is colour; the exciting use of colour!

It doesn’t matter whether Paul Rattigan engages with the figure, the landscape or abstraction, I believe that invariably the viewer will be struck by the vibrant spectrum of his palette.
To my mind, it is this expressive use of saturated colour that underpins the personality of these unique works.

Back in the 1960s Paul Rattigan graduated from the College of Art in Dublin and continued his studies at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London. He could have embarked on a career as a painter after that, but decided otherwise. Having completed stints in London and New York where he worked in advertising, as well as a spell in stage and lighting design, he returned to Dublin to concentrate on graphic design.

For the past three decades Rattigan enjoyed a very successful career which offered many challenges as he applied his considerable talents in graphic design to the needs of his clients. Part of this success was due to his heightened visual awareness, always pushing out the boundaries, constantly striving for originality. At the same time he continued to paint and to sell his work in Ireland and internationally. But recently he made the bold decision to become a full-time artist.

During his time in practice he had to focus on specific projects and come up with solutions which helped clients to reach their corporate or marketing objectives. From these circumstances of necessary constraint and discipline over many years, Paul Rattigan was suddenly facing the freedom to follow his own path, limited only by his skills and his imagination.

The sense of freedom was very acute and stimulating as he began to form a vision for the body of work he was about to create. Realising the vast and exciting vista that was opening up before him he first decided to look back to the distant past.

The prehistoric wall paintings at Lascaux in south-western France were an earlier source of inspiration which led to the creation of his Beast series. But perhaps the most significant influence came from his reading of the work of Dr. Mark Clinton, whose writings are informed by his work as an archaeologist and his deep interest in music. His story entitled The Whispering Stones reached back into Irish mythology, linking old superstitions and beliefs in the afterworld with the contemporary story of Mikey and Kate, the latter returning ‘home’ to join the spirits of those she loved. The story generates a sense of never fully accepting things as they seem, but instead being conscious of a parallel ethereal theme which is unfolding simultaneously.

This blending of the past and present represented a sort of limitless freedom for the artist to dig deep within his own consciousness, using life experience, instinct and technical skills. For him the rich imaginative content of this story acted as a catalyst for him to form his own vision as he worked towards this first solo showing. It could be said that it was more than a catalyst and more like a catharsis as the artist realised the magnitude of this task and fully embraced the freedom that was often denied to him in a former life.

Rattigan intended a strong narrative link between all the works seen in this show. He has therefore created themes that were fully interlinked in his own mind. Whether he is portraying figures or the spaces they inhabit they are all part of the same visual discourse. These images may appear familiar in a certain way and yet they are detached from reality. This is partly to do with a deliberate blurring of chronology, a facility to move backwards and forwards in time while still imbuing the work with elements that are fully comprehensible.

Figuration features prominently in the work, mainly female figures in isolation. These solitary beings occupy their own spaces, oblivious to the world around them, suspended within a moment of time. They seem to be searching, questioning, inviting the viewer to look closer but never allowing access to the world they inhabit.
While some of these figures remain static, other suggest movement, a consequence perhaps of the artist’s close involvement with Riverdance over the past decade? He freely acknowledges that Riverdance had an effect on his thinking, as the portrayal of Irishness in this smash-hit show made him question his own culture and background.

At the same time there appears to be some strong influence from sources such as Degas and Matisse. Another recurrent element is a floral-like patterning which may have its roots in theatre design. The sense of landscape is also fully present, with a visible horizon line creeping into some of the images, sometimes in conjunction with the figurative content. Generally the works are fully accessible and representational, with a narrative continously present. But at times the artist veers towards semi-abstraction. In his book The Shape of Content, published in 1957, the Lithuanian-born American artist Ben Shahn talked about the meaning of abstraction, describing it as the act of “separating certain fundamentals from the irrelevant material which surrounds them.

An artist may abstract the essential form of an object by freeing it from perspective or by freeing it from details.” While perspective remains intact in Rattigan’s work, details have certainly been omitted, inviting us to look harder as we take our own meanings from each image. But total abstraction was never his aim. This may have something to do with an inbuilt reluctance to fully lose sight of meaning, a throwback perhaps from his days as a designer.
Finally, colour is also a delightful component of the work.

In this sense Paul Rattigan’s artistic achievement is fully realised. His maturity and judgement inform his palette, allowing him to produce a body of work unified in chromatic perfection.

Dublin — October 2007