Born in Derry in 1901, Norah McGuinness trained at the Metropolitan School of Art under Patrick Touhy and Harry Clarke. She traveled to Paris in 1929, wherer she enrolled at the school of Cubist painter Andre Lhote. In the 1930´s, McGuinness was living in London, a member of Lucy Wertheim´s “Twenties Group”, and exhibiting at the Wertheim Gallery. The inspiration of the White Stag exhibitions in Dublin led to the establishment in 1943 of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, by McGuinness, Louis le Brocquy, Mainie Jellett and Jack Hanlon. McGuinness was elected president of ILEA in 1957, a postion she retained for almost twenty years. The popularity of the ILEA showed that there were many artists working in Ireland outside the academic realist tradition. The initial exhibitions included Nano Reid, Patrick Scott and Gerard Dillon. McGuinness, Doreen Vanston and Mainie Jellett showed the influence of Cubism in their work, while Colin Middleton brought a Surrealist flavour to the exhibition.

Throughout her career, McGuinness´s paintings, based on strong compositions and a confident use of colour, were influenced by what became known as the “School of Paris”. However with the passing of years, her style inevitably became less progressive, and by the 1970´s she was painting in a style that had long since been overtaken by new developments such as Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and Pop Art.

As well as painting in oil on canvas, McGuinness also produced gouache and watercolour paintings, particularly in her later years. Seaweed Shapes (c. 1967), a late work, is a study in contrasts, between the black and white gulls, and the brown and black areas of seaweed. While inspired by the beach at Sandymount, with the semi-industrial and residential buildings of North Wall visible beyond the blue band of the Liffey estuary, the painting is not intended to be specific in its location, but is an essay in decorative and accomplished abstraction.

-PM