THE GREAT FIGHT by Micheal Farrell Lot n° 69

Micheal Farrell, 1940-2000 THE GREAT FIGHT Acrylic, charcoal and spray paint on canvas, 60” x 65” (152.4 x 165.1cm), signed. Provenance:Collection of Georgia Shearman, the artist's daughter Sale; Sold these rooms, Dublin, 8 December 2010, lot 25; Mary Hobart, London. Micheal Farrell was born in Meath. He studied at St Martin's School of Art in London from 1956-60 and later Colchester College of Art. He settled in Paris at La Ruche studios in 1971, amidst a network of artists apartments. From early on as an artist Farrell viewed himself in an international context and it was on a visit to New York (where he also met Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein) that he saw a photograph of a painting by George Bellows of the boxer Jack Dempsey being knocked through the ropes by Louis Firpo in the first round of a world contest in 1923. Dempsey climbed back into the ring and knocked Firpo out in the next round. Farrell depicted the scene in two paintings with Dempsey flying through the ropes into the crowd, Firpo's gloves aglow in gold. These were his last major works, one of which was finished only a month before he died - perhaps the 'Great Fight' was Farrell's own battle with cancer and an acknowledgement that his end was near. (ref. David Farrell,Micheal Farrell - The Life and Work of an Irish Artist, pp.168-169).