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'Gay Byrne' wallpaper
Kindness, John, born 1951 - Enlarge image
'Gay Byrne' wallpaper
- Object:
Wallpaper
- Place of origin:
Ireland (made)
- Date:
2000 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Kindness, John, born 1951 (artist)
Hobbs, Anthony (printer) - Materials and Techniques:
Inkjet print on paper
- Credit Line:
Given by the artist
- Museum number:
E.513-2009
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case MB2B, shelf DR113, box DW21
This wallpaper was made for a portrait commission from the National Gallery of Ireland. It was the backdrop to Kindness's oil painting of the sitter which also showed him in profile, repeated. The subject of this playful wallpaper portrait is Gay Byrne, a popular radio and television presenter in Ireland. By choosing to portray him in this way, Kindness was commenting on Byrne's one-time ubiquity as a commentator on Ireland's cultural life. The figures in the background of the wallpaper refer to some of the more surreal events and guests on Byrne's television programme, The Late, Late Show; these including people dancing, singing, fighting and making sculptures from butter.
