The Artist
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Name: Jeremy John Christmas Henderson
Born: Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland - 25th December 1952 Died: Boho, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland - 28th April 2009 Education: Ulster University - Foundation Diploma in Art and Design - 1972-73 Kingston University - Fine Art BA Hons (First Class) - 1973-76 Chelsea School of Art - MA Postgraduate Fine Art - 1978-79 Medium: Oil on Canvas; Oil on Paper; Watercolour; Charcoal; Acrylic; Vitreous Enamel; Gouache Movement: Abstract, Lyrical Abstraction Awards: Stowells Trophy, Royal Academy - 1975 Stanley Picker Fellowship Award - 1977 (First Winner) Artscribe Prize - 1978, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Award - 1984 (Shortlisted) Residencies: Kingston University - Artist in Residence - 1977-78 |
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Influences
Henderson is frequently compared to the playwright Samuel Beckett and artist Jack B Yeats, and was also influenced by the work of Hans Hoffmann, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Picasso, Corot, Claude Lorrain and John Hoyland, a tutor and painter, at Chelsea School of Art. Henderson was also influenced by Dutch landscape painters. His work incorporates stylistic influences from Ancient Greek and Irish symbolism, together with forms such as the architectural carvings of the goddess Sheela Na Gig - in White Island, Lough Erne. A dedicated artist with no interest in self promotion he is often referred to as Ireland's Invisible Genius.
Jeremy Henderson was a passionate man with strong emotions, and it follows that his influences would have a powerful emotional appeal to him. These can be said to be a combination of early life around the family tweed mill, with its rich and colourful textures, the love he held for Lisbellaw and County Fermanagh, and the turmoil of the sustained troubles in Ireland which, often localised, formed the background to his time in the family home, and later in life. His early geometrical work, very much in the style of the 1970’s, resonates with energy, bright colour and tension between forms.
Jeremy Henderson was a passionate man with strong emotions, and it follows that his influences would have a powerful emotional appeal to him. These can be said to be a combination of early life around the family tweed mill, with its rich and colourful textures, the love he held for Lisbellaw and County Fermanagh, and the turmoil of the sustained troubles in Ireland which, often localised, formed the background to his time in the family home, and later in life. His early geometrical work, very much in the style of the 1970’s, resonates with energy, bright colour and tension between forms.
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Late 1970’s early 1980's, he began to use the landscape of his childhood as a metaphor – rather than a literal interpretation of a place. Henderson retained a strong affection for Fermanagh. The area, its Irish folklore and the tension of violent events of the nearby border influenced him to produce paintings where the past was part of the present. Initially, he worked large scale in watercolour to create vibrant interpretations of the landscape from Topped Mountain and overlooking Lough Erne, County Fermanagh. This influence reveals itself in the series; Around a Border (see hand written note), Night Patrol, Present Memories and the Vastest Things are those We may not Learn.
Jeremy Henderson imbued his work with a duality, where nature and its sensuality were intertwined and this is evident in much of his later work particularly in the Tree Calligraphy series from 2005, delighting in the primal curves of the female form. Henderson was a progressive artist and a prolific reader, frequently inspired from the texts he read, much affected by words and phrases, for which he had a passion, and which so often is reflected in the names and descriptions of his work. The following are phrases which resonated deeply with the artist. |
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Never one to court the commercialism of his work Henderson is nevertheless listed in the 20th century art compendium, Artists in Britain since 1945. Appreciated by his mentors, the artist and founder of the aptly named Trust and Award scheme, Stanley Picker followed Henderson's development with great interest always offering words of encouragement as contained in the letters from Stanley Picker.
From the poem ‘The vastest things are those we may not learn’ by Mervyn Peake, inspiring Henderson’s art series of the same name.
The vastest things are those we may not learn. We are not taught to die, nor to be born,
Nor how to burn With love. How pitiful is our enforced return
To those small things we are the masters of.
From the writing of the 2nd century Greek philosopher Lucian Samosata quoted in Tony Spiteris book ‘Greek & Etruscan Painters’
Is it possible, on seeing a huge mansion, magnificent, everywhere lit up glistening with gold flowering as it were with paintings, not to want to describe it? When an educated man contemplates beautiful objects he is not content to enjoy them only with his eyes, he does not remain the dumb spectator of these beauties, he tries his best to become possessed by them and express them by some word of gratitude. But here you see the difficulty, to reconstruct such pictures without colour, without figures away from the place itself, for it is a poor thing to paint only in words.
Palinurus (Roman mythology) helmsman of Aeneas's ship; inspires Palinurus in Soho series.
Palinurus, a skilful pilot of the ship of Aenus, fell into the sea in his sleep, was three days exposed to the tempests and waves of the sea and at last came safe to the seashore near Velia, where the cruel inhabitants of the place murdered him to obtain his clothes, his body was left unburied on the seashore.
From the poem ‘The vastest things are those we may not learn’ by Mervyn Peake, inspiring Henderson’s art series of the same name.
The vastest things are those we may not learn. We are not taught to die, nor to be born,
Nor how to burn With love. How pitiful is our enforced return
To those small things we are the masters of.
From the writing of the 2nd century Greek philosopher Lucian Samosata quoted in Tony Spiteris book ‘Greek & Etruscan Painters’
Is it possible, on seeing a huge mansion, magnificent, everywhere lit up glistening with gold flowering as it were with paintings, not to want to describe it? When an educated man contemplates beautiful objects he is not content to enjoy them only with his eyes, he does not remain the dumb spectator of these beauties, he tries his best to become possessed by them and express them by some word of gratitude. But here you see the difficulty, to reconstruct such pictures without colour, without figures away from the place itself, for it is a poor thing to paint only in words.
Palinurus (Roman mythology) helmsman of Aeneas's ship; inspires Palinurus in Soho series.
Palinurus, a skilful pilot of the ship of Aenus, fell into the sea in his sleep, was three days exposed to the tempests and waves of the sea and at last came safe to the seashore near Velia, where the cruel inhabitants of the place murdered him to obtain his clothes, his body was left unburied on the seashore.
Collections
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Private
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In the Artist's Own Words
“In my paintings the time of day is indeterminable, the weather changeable, something has happened or is about to happen”- circa 1987
"The visual geographical location of my work is the Irish border, however psychologically it is border landscape of the chthonian and conscious worlds. I attempt to imbue my paintings with layers of meaning. People can peel away any combination of mixed metaphors or symbols like skin".
“The nearest analogy I can make to my approach is in a remark by the sculptor Constantin Branusi, ‘the best sculpture is a road’. I adopted this as a painting title because it is not only a descriptive of the visual subject matter but in a dual way it implies the conceptual journey through which the work comes into being”.
“Since returning to Ireland my work has become less concerned with resting landscape painting in a cultural context more appropriate to our times, but has come full circle towards an internalised organic abstraction which characterised my more intuitive approach until the early eighties”- circa 1995
“My recent work is concerned with the psychological process of object making. To create on canvas an open structure allowing aspects of the physical world or representations of it to emerge, so the paint may become invested with nuances and meanings”.
"The visual geographical location of my work is the Irish border, however psychologically it is border landscape of the chthonian and conscious worlds. I attempt to imbue my paintings with layers of meaning. People can peel away any combination of mixed metaphors or symbols like skin".
“The nearest analogy I can make to my approach is in a remark by the sculptor Constantin Branusi, ‘the best sculpture is a road’. I adopted this as a painting title because it is not only a descriptive of the visual subject matter but in a dual way it implies the conceptual journey through which the work comes into being”.
“Since returning to Ireland my work has become less concerned with resting landscape painting in a cultural context more appropriate to our times, but has come full circle towards an internalised organic abstraction which characterised my more intuitive approach until the early eighties”- circa 1995
“My recent work is concerned with the psychological process of object making. To create on canvas an open structure allowing aspects of the physical world or representations of it to emerge, so the paint may become invested with nuances and meanings”.
