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Michael WarrenKireji

Warren-Body.indd 1Warren-Body.indd 1 31/08/2010 20:36:1731/08/2010 20:36:17

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Michael Warren with Nobuko Sawasaki, 1992Buddhist Temple of Sensyo-ji, Miyagi-ken, Japan


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Michael Warren’s art exists in a realm whose weights and balances adjust themselves according to their own logic. At fi rst sight, his sculptures are strangely, even forbiddingly, other. They “tease us out of thought as doth eternity.” But on longer acquaintance—and I have known both the artist and his work for 45 years—they become powerfully present and correct to one’s own experience. In forcing our thoughts beyond rational explanation, they open up a poetics of space in which elemental realities are free to settle their own confl icts silently and without fuss.

Warren is fond of quoting his fellow Wexfordian, the dramatist Billy Roche, that the artist must “keep it in the long grass.” This is similar to the effect of Japanese haiku, in which the controlling image is all the more memorable for having excluded everything else. Warren, paradoxically, likes to reveal the contingencies of the process—stains, cracks, abrasions, imperfections—while keeping the main springs of his artistry hidden. In reconciling intractable elements against the grain, he thus creates his own rough magic.

A strong factor in this struggle with necessity is the sense of humility conveyed by the work, its almost medieval anonymity. It is very far from any form of

“self-expression” as usually understood, no sense of the “egotistical sublime” that Keats found in Wordsworth. Instead, there is a standing and delivering directed by technical means. In beating our egos fl at, this work enlarges our spirits.

Warren’s works create their own stage—he often displays them on a platform, in landscape terms, a promontory—on which rough-hewn materials become the dramatis personae of a universal drama involving presence and absence, heaviness and lightness, nature and art, Caliban and Ariel; to use the terms of his beloved Simone Weil, they are representations of gravity aspiring towards grace.

Timothy BrownlowVancouver Island University

Rough Magic The Sculpture of Michael Warren


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“ There is always a metaphysical preoccupation at its heart… In Warren’s basic language of form, the twin axes, horizontal and vertical, and physical forces and pressures, are the stage on which the drama of being is played out. A striving, upward momentum, a pull to earth, a tearing apart and a concentrated though tenuous presence: all fi gure in pieces that refer to being and embodiment in tragic terms of struggle and redemption.”

Aidan Dunne


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Kirejibronze, 2010

9 x 29 x 31 cm


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“ This engagement of art in a process of transfi guration is found in some degree in all of Warren’s sculpture. His work is not put at the service of any particular creed, but recognises the importance of art as a focus for constantly rehearsing the relations between the material and the spiritual: and its acute sense of its place in the history of artistic and architectural forms means that those relations are always understood and enriched through development in a shared context, in the cultivation of a sense of community in both place and time.”

Rod Mengham


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Equusbronze, 2010

50 x 33 x 13 cm


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Little Wavebronze, 2010

13·5 x 28 x 21 cm


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“ Permeating all forms of authentic art there is a particular weight - something equivalent to the density of the real world - a hallmark that we intuitively recognise. We can connect to this and, in the connection, be uplifted.”

Michael Warren


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Zigguratbronze, 2010

15 x 37·5 x 34 cm


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Development of a Great Wave in Spacebronze, 2010

17·5 x 34 x 28·5 cm


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“ Something stirring, inseparable from elevated thought, continually informs this asceticism which goes far beyond its substance. Here is a mature work of indisputable aura imposing its presence on the landscape of contemporary sculpture.”

Gerard Xuriguera


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Sculpturepietra da Vicenza, c. 1974

26 x 38 x 28·5 cm


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my sculpture, like Chinese script,

reads downwards:

limit is imposed by space;

space has weight.

Void is emptiness

fi lled with space,

sculpture,

the ratio of space to matter -

the awareness of limit.

Michael Warren, 1987


Stelebronze, 2008

208 x 33·5 x 16 cm


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Born in Dublin, 1950, Michael Warren lives and works in the countryside of County Wexford, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and completed his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano, Italy. Over the past thirty years he has regularly exhibited in Dublin, Paris, Cologne, the United States and across the globe. Warren works in bronze, timber, stone, steel and concrete. An artisan’s love of material and technique is combined with a keen comprehension of Western philosophy. Always stripping things to the essential; the simplest form revealing enormous potency. His commitment and achievement have long been recognised in his native Ireland where he was elected as a member of Aosdána in 1981 and as a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2008, with signifi cant decorations and honours too from many other countries’ governments and universities. He has created some of the most challenging public sculpture of the last decades. Warren has made large-scale

sculptures in Andorra, Ecuador, England, France, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Morocco, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Taiwan, United States of America and the West Indies. His work is included in important collections worldwide.


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SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010 Kireji, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland

2010 Unbroken Line (Retrospective), VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland

2008 M-7-23, CDAN, Centro de Arte y Naturaleza, Huesca, Spain

2008 Footfalls (with Patrick Graham), Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland

2008 Expo ’08, Zaragoza, Spain

2007 Of Weight and Wings, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin

2007 Michael Warren, Galerie Weiller, Paris

2006 Hypothetical Imperative, homage to Samuel Beckett, RHA, Dublin

2005 Angel Negro, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland

Michael Warren,Marrakech 2008


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2004 Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2004 Small Works, Vangard Gallery, Cork, Ireland

2004 Michael Warren - Dispositions, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland

2003 Amor Fati, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

2002 Light, Gravity and Distance, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland

1998 Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland

1996 Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne, Germany

1996 Calendar, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

1996 Galerie Slotine, Le Harve, France

1996 Galerie Weiller, Paris, France

1995 Simple Measure, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

1992 Galerie Gardy Wiechern, Hamburg, Germany


1989 Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland


1984 Solomon Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

1983 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA

1982 Galerie Charley Chevalier, Paris, France

1981 Art Council Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland

1980 Sculpture 69-80, Letatlin, Gorey, Ireland

M-7 23


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GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 Between Metaphor and Object, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2009 The Weight of Light: Irish Abstraction, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland

2008 Plastik und Zeichnung, Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne, Germany

2007 International Works, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland

2006 Inaugural, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland

2006 Here, there & otherwise, Broadstone Gallery & Studios, Dublin, Ireland

2005 SIAR 50, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2004 Art for Amnesty, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2003 Manif 2003, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea

2000 Artists’ Century - Irish Self-Portraits and Selected Works 1900-2000, RHA Gallery, Dublin; OBG, Belfast

1999 Exposition en l’honneur de Gerard Xuriguera, Châternay-Malaery, France

1999 Wood - A Sculptural Investigation, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

1998 EV+A 98 - circus zz, St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Ireland

1998 Éigse, Carlow Arts Festival, St Patrick’s College, Carlow, Ireland

1996 l’Imaginaire Irlandais, Galerie Lahumière, Paris, France

1996 Regards sur la Sculpture Contemporaine, Espace Belleville, Paris, France


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1996 Innovation from Tradition, Justus Lipius Building, Brussels, Belgium

1994 Reconnection, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland

1994 Aspects de Sculptures Contemporaines, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Clermont-Ferrand, France

1992 Irish Art of the Eighties, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

1990 Contemporary Artists from Ireland, Austin Desmond Fine Art, London, England

1990 Irish Art - The European Dimension, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

1988 Olympiad of Art, Olympic Sculpture Park, Seoul, Korea

1985 Rosc - 9 Irish Artists, Armstrong Gallery, New York, USA

1984 Rosc ‘84, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin, Ireland

1982 1ère Biennale Européenne de Sculptures de Normandie, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Jouy-sur-Eure, Normandy, France

1982 Carnegie International, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA

1980 The International Connection, Round House Gallery, London, England


Amor FatiVietnamese ‘White Jade’ marbleChiaopanshan Park, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 2003


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DISTINCTIONS

2008 Elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy

2001 Tulach a’ tSolais nominated for Mies van der Rohe Architecture Prize

1998 Decoration of Cultural Merit, Ecuador

1993 Sculpture on postage stamp issued by Principality of Andorra

1991 Medalla al Merito Artistico, Madrid

1989 Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum Award, Japan

1984 Nominated for the Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts (Sculpture), Israel

1981 Elected a member of Aosdána

1980/83 Mont Kavanagh Award for Environmental Art, Dublin


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

2010 Rough Magic: The Sculpture of Michael Warren, Timothy Brownlow, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin

2010 Michael Warren: a sculptor in time, Rod Mengham, VISUAL, Carlow

2008 Footfalls: Patrick Graham and Michael Warren, John Daly, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin

2008 In Respect of Chair Legs, Leaves and papers no. 6, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin

2008 Michael Warren’s Go Deo, homage to Samuel Beckett, Yvonne Scott, TRIARC, Trinity College, Dublin

2007 Michael Warren, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin

2005 Primary Forms, Peter Murray, Irish Arts Review, Autumn 2005, Dublin

2002 Michael Warren - Light, Gravity and Distance, Peter Murray, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

1995 Michael Warren - Simple Measure, John Hutchinson, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin

1993 Michael Warren - Places, Gerard Xuriguera, Gandon Editions, Kinsale, Cork

1989 Michael Warren - Silence and Necessity, John Hutchinson, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin

1987 Michael Warren - John Donat, London

1980 Michael Warren - Sculpture 69-80, Anne Crookshank, Letatlin Press, Gorey, Wexford

1980 Meditazione sullo Spazia e la Gravità, Michael Warren, Sculptura, Milano


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LARGE SCALE SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS

2010 Antaeus II, Scott Cottage, Rossdohan, County Kerry

2010 M-7 23, homage to Eileen Gray II, Department of Environment, Wexford

2009 Stele for Thomas Wyse, Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), Waterford

2009 Obelisk, Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, Oldbridge Estate, County Meath

2008 Lieu de Rencontre, Dar Sabre, Marrakech, Morocco

2008 M-7 23, Expo 2008, Zaragoza, Spain

2006 Go deo, homage to Samuel Beckett, Trinity College, Dublin

2005 Em Louvor dos Limites, Carrazeda de Ansiaes, Portugal

2004 No Pasaran, the Mall, Waterford City

2003 Amor Fati, Jiaobanshan Park, Taoyuan, Taiwan

2003 Bronze Arch, Gongju, Korea

2003 Her Hair II, Courtown Harbour, County Wexford

2002 Gateway, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin

2001 East Point, East Point, Dublin

2001 Pasqua III, University of Valencia, Spain

2001 Ceatharloch, Carlow

2001 Millennium Sculpture, RTÉ, Dublin

2000 Dolmen, Irish Management Institute, Dublin

2000 Almanac, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

1999 Tulach a’ tSolais, Oulart Hill, County Wexford

1999 Atlanticus, County Buildings, Galway


Michael Warren and Rod Mengham at the artist’s studio, 2010


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1999 Pasqua II, A&L Goodbody HQ, International Financial Services Centre, Dublin

1998 El Arado y las Estrellas, Metropolitan Park, Quito, Ecuador

1998 Antaeus, Devil’s Glen, County Wicklow

1998 Chi III, Rathdown School, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin

1997 Her Hair, East Point, Dublin

1996 Hors les murs, Clermont-Ferrand, France

1996 Trade Winds, Santo Tirso, Portugal

1995 Ophelia (1st version), Dieudonné, Oise, France

1995 Ophelia (2nd version), Castlelough, County Clare

1994 Alizers et Tortues, Lamentin, Guadeloupe, French West Indies

1994 Wood Quay, Civic Offi ces, Dublin

1993 Eena-Meena-Mina-Mo, Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois

1993 Salmon Fall, University of Limerick

1993 Living Relic, Dunleer, Co Louth

1992 A Full Moon in March, Minamikata, Japan

1992 Elegy to Light, Island of Thassos, Greece

1991 Pagan Place, Encamp, Principality of Andorra

1991 Chi, Allied Dunbar, Swindon, England

1991 Throughway, University College Dublin

1991 Beneath the ‘bow, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin

1990 Chi, Oloron Sainte-Marie, France

1990 Journey Inland, Campo de las Naciones, Madrid


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1989 Thrones, Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan

1989 Bio-dynamics, Conrad Hotel, Dublin

1988 Antigone, Olympic Sculpture Park, Seoul

1987 De-creation VI, Ferrybank, Wexford

1986 Timber Construction for Plano, Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, USA

1986 After Image, Castletown Cox, Co Tipperary [now at University College Dublin]

1986 Thrones, Leighlinbridge, County Carlow

1985 Countermovement, Trinity College, Dublin

1985 Void Anchored, Kilkenny Castle, Kilkenny

1985 Escultura Blanca, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

1985 Articulation of Void, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

1985 Broken Obelisk, Foxrock, County Dublin

1984 Chi I, Ulster Museum, Belfast

1983 Family, Gilbey’s of Ireland, Dublin

1981 Noche Oscura, Dublin Port & Docks Board, Dublin

1978 De-creation V, RTÉ, Dublin


A Full Moon in Marchsteel, oak, clay, gravelMinamikata, Japan, 1992


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Published by Hillsboro Fine Art on the occasion of the exhibition:

Michael Warren: KirejiSeptember 24 – October 16, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-9564950-3-7

Artist’s acknowledgments:Bronze Art, Dublin; Declan Breen, Timothy Brownlow; Kieran R Byrne, John Daly, Patrick Lawlor, Barry Meade, Eric van Kampen, Cristina Warren, Richard Warren.

© Hillsboro Fine Art, the artist and the authorsPhotography: Eric van Kampen PP; 6–9, 12–13, 15, 18–19,

22–23, 26–27, 30 Yuan-chun PP; 37, 47

Satoru Sato PP; 2 George Warren PP; 32Hillsboro Fine Art PP; 34, 38, 43

Design: Meade Creative ServicesPrinting: Colour World Print Limited

Michael Warren is represented byHillsboro Fine Art, 49 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1, Ireland+353.1.8788242www.hillsborofi neart.com

Cover: Kireji (detail)bronze, 2010, 9 x 29 x 31 cm


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