Following her death aged 79 in January 2020, the life and work of the artist Veronica Bolay will be celebrated at an upcoming exhibition.
Elemental: An Appreciation of the Extraordinary Life and Work of Veronica Bolay, is an exhibition to be held at the Coach House Galleries at Dublin Castle. Curated by gallerist Paul Kane, it offers space for members of the public to become familiar with the artist’s work, which, over the years, won her many admirers.
[ Veronica Bolay obituary: German-born artist inspired by the West of Ireland ]
One of Bolay’s first memories was being carried as a two-year-old during Operation Gomorrah in 1943 during the second World War. Hoisted on her mother Kate’s shoulders, they escaped to an air-raid shelter to avoid the bombing of Hamburg. It was one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force, and killed an estimated 37,000 civilians in addition to the 180,000 wounded, while destroying most of the city in an attempt to destroy German morale and end the war.
As their home was destroyed during the operation, they ended up at her grandmother’s farm in Mecklenburg, northeast Germany, but fearful over a potential division of the country, they began the 240km journey back to postwar Hamburg on foot, where her mother departed to the Netherlands for work, leaving a young Bolay with her grandmother.
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We had sex maybe once a month. The constant rejection was soul-crushing, it felt like my ex didn’t even like me
After studying theatrical costume design, followed by group therapy, she met and married Peter Jankowsky. They settled in Ireland in 1971, where the then 30-year-old Bolay began life as a fine artist. By 1978 she was part of a pioneering exhibition, along with influential women artists such as Camille Souter, Mary Farl Powers and others, at the Project Arts Centre.
She wrote in an exhibition note in 2006: “My themes often emerge from the Irish land and landscape, especially the rural western landscape”. Jankowsky, a translator and regular contributor to the Goethe Institut, and Bolay also developed strong connections with the west, most notably Westport and Clare Island, where she produced some of her best work.
She exhibited with many solo shows, including those at the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar, a place she held dear to her heart, while also serving on the board for many years, and where a retrospective exhibition honouring her work took place in November last year.
Past president of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Mick O’Dea, remembers first meeting Bolay at the Lincoln Gallery in Dublin in the 1970s: “There was something about Veronica. She knew you. At least I felt that she knew me. Her knowing you felt special and she had an otherworldliness about her, a mystical dimension that was very attractive and elusive”.
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Having won many prestigious awards over the years, including the James Adam Salesroom award, the Liam Walsh award and the Maurice MacGonigal prize, she was elected an associate member of the RHA in 1996, and as a full member in 2002, and was also a member of Aosdána.
“All the stages of Veronica’s artistic development are represented in this exhibition,” says curator Kane. “It shows the development of her style over her life as an observer and a painter, a style that is difficult to classify in a normal way”.
The exhibition continues until March 19th. dublincastle.ie
