Gladys MacCabe HRUA

Composition, 2008

Gladys MacCabe HRUA

• Oil on Board
• 51 x 58cm

• (year indicated above is year of acquisition only)

   

  Gladys MacCabe was born in 1918 in Randalstown, County Antrim. Her mother Elizabeth was a designer in the linen business, and her father George Chalmers, a former army officer, was an artist specialising in calligraphy and illumination. One of her ancestors was a famous 18th century Scottish painter, Sir George Chalmers.

  She had a picture published in the Royal Drawing Society's magazine when she was 16 years old and went on to study at the Belfast College of Art. In 1941 she married fellow artist and musician Max Maccabe (who died in 2000). Gladys and Max exhibited together on many occasions, starting in Ireland at Robinson & Cleaver in Belfast, 1942, and in England at the Kensington Art Gallery in 1949.

  Gladys and Max were members of the group of artists known as The Contemporary Ulster Group, which included Dan O'Neill, George Campbell, and Gerard Dillon. William Conor was also an associate and Gladys painted his portrait in 1957 (now hanging in the Ulster Folk Museum). Maccabe formed the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1957, as she felt that there was a wealth of talent among the women artists of Ulster which needed to be represented. The group’s first major exhibition was in the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1959. During the 1960s Maccabe was a fashion and arts correspondent working for both newspapers and television.

  Maccabe was Northern Ireland Art Critic for the Irish Independent and wrote a column for the Sunday Independent.

   

  from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Maccabe_%28artist%29