Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994)JUGGERNAUT, 1988oil on canvas; irregularsigned and dated lower

Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994)

JUGGERNAUT, 1988

oil on canvas; irregular

signed and dated lower left

LandscaPortraite

26 by 32in., 65 by 80cm.

Caldwell Galleries, Dublin;The Collection of Vincent Ferguson;Thence by descent to the present owner

`Patrick Collins`, Caldwell Galleries, Dublin, until 30 November 1989;`Patrick Collins HRHA, Last Daylight, the late cut-out paintings of Patrick Collins`, RHA, Dublin, 14 January – 27 March 2011

Someone once asked me why didn`t I teach - pass on my experience to somebody else? In reply, I said I would have to start by saying, I can teach you nothing because I know nothing and that`s after a lifetime of working for artistic completion, reading, writing, researching, discussing and observing. I broke all the rules in an effort to get at the truth of something and landed back on my own two feet with the conclusion that nobody else knows anything either. So there are no teachers, no pundits, only yourself. I started by trying to wed the thing and some hidden meaning of it and instinctively demanding a shape that overall accommodated both. Now I`ve arrived at a logical development of this idea with the blanks substituting or suggesting what I didn`t know." Patrick Collins, from the exhibition catalogue to his solo show at the Caldwell Galleries, Dublin, November, 1989The recent RHA exhibition of Collins` `cut outs` in 2011 brought into focus this controversial series from the mid-eighties. While these works show the artist employing a new technique, the brutal cutting of canvas with a scissors, they tie in with his earlier preoccupation of relating the painted image to the edge of the picture plane."