Alice Maher Sold at Auction Prices

Alice Maher,  Irish b.1956 -  Venus Interrupted, 2005;  painted & patinated bronze, unique

Alice Maher,  Irish b.1956 -  Venus Interrupted, 2005;  painted & patinated bronze, unique, stamped with Foundry stamp, H58 x W30 x D23 cm (ARR)  Note: Maher's work is currently included in both the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and the Arsenale at the Venice Biennale. She was recently awarded the 18th Drawing Prize, Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation in March 2025. 

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) FOXTAIL, 2003

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) FOXTAIL, 2003 charcoal on Arches paper h:28  w:24.75 in. Literature: Chadwick, Whitney; Maher, Alice, Resevoir: Sketchbooks and Selected Works, Roads Publishing, Dublin, 2014

ALICE MAHER (B.1956) Medea’s Gloves Silk gloves and hair, 34 x 13cm Edition 7/10 Signed and inscribed Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC

ALICE MAHER (B.1956) Medea’s Gloves Silk gloves and hair, 34 x 13cm Edition 7/10 Signed and inscribed Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC

ALICE MAHER (B.1956) LOVERS, 2007 Charcoal on arches paper, 152.5 x 102cm

ALICE MAHER (B.1956) LOVERS, 2007 Charcoal on arches paper, 152.5 x 102cm

ALICE MAHER (b.1956)Did I Really Kill All Seven of Them (1990)Mixed media on paper, 133 x 103.5cmSigned versoExhibited: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 'SIAR 50: 50 Years of Irish Art from the Collections of the Contemporary Irish Art Society (CIAS)

ALICE MAHER (b.1956)Did I Really Kill All Seven of Them (1990)Mixed media on paper, 133 x 103.5cmSigned versoExhibited: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 'SIAR 50: 50 Years of Irish Art from the Collections of the Contemporary Irish Art Society (CIAS)', 2006.

ALICE MAHER (b.1956)SwimmersOil on canvas, 244 x 133cmSigned and dated 1996 versoHillsboro Fine Art Label versoBorn in County Tipperary in 1956, Alice Maher grew up in the rural townland of Kilmoyler. After initial studies at Cork’s Crawford Sc

ALICE MAHER (b.1956)SwimmersOil on canvas, 244 x 133cmSigned and dated 1996 versoHillsboro Fine Art Label versoBorn in County Tipperary in 1956, Alice Maher grew up in the rural townland of Kilmoyler. After initial studies at Cork’s Crawford School of Art, Maher went on to earn a Master’s degree from Ulster University. Having received a prestigious Fulbright scholarship in 1986 Maher engaged in a formative period of study at San Francisco’s Art Institute. In the following decades Maher became one of the leading figures in contemporary Irish art. Her oeuvre is extremely diverse (and includes drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, print and digital media) but cohesively unified by a set of very particular conceptual concerns.Swimmers (1996) exemplifies Maher’s penchant for interpreting mythological or fabular subjects in a uniquely subversive way. This work was shaped by her fascination with the Roman Goddess Venus, who is said to have been born from the foam created when the castrated testicles of Uranus were flung into the sea. Rather than emulate the tired tropes of Western Art in which Venus is depicted as a passive, prettified subject (à la Botticelli’s Birth of Venus c. 1480) Maher multiplies the goddess into a multitude who avoid the male gaze by concealing themselves below the water line. Only the head and eyes of the troop of swimmers are visible and some have even turned their backs on us. While there is certainly humour in Maher’s work she eschews whimsy or frivolity and seeks to restore the archetypal potency of the goddess figure.Swimmers demonstrates how within Maher’s oeuvre, particular motifs and symbols can connect works executed in very different media. This painting is significant in that it is linked directly to two sculptural installations that Maher also produced the same year she made this painting. The first of these was an impressive aquatic sculptural installation initially produced for an expanse of water in a Paris public park but later exhibited elsewhere. Entitled Les Filles d'Ouranos the work comprised of fifteen heads (similar to those in this painting) made from a buoyant foam that float upon the surface of the lake. The other work connected to this painting (also entitled Swimmers) consisted of four bronze heads that evoke art historical representations of Ophelia. This intriguing painting demonstrates Maher’s career long interest in mermaids, nymphs and various archetypal women of the water. In addition to her singular visual vocabulary Maher is also renowned for her distinctive approach to materials. This is notable in her recurring use of found biological elements (including bees, snails, brambles and human hair) which are incorporated into art objects that are at once elegant and uncanny.Several significant exhibitions of Maher’s work have taken place in recent years including a major retrospective at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2012 entitled Becoming. Maher’s work has been exhibited in numerous international contexts and her work is held in several significant public collections including the Irish Museum of Modern Art; The British Museum, Crawford Gallery, Deutsche Bank, the Fogg Museum, the Hammond Museum L.A, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Boston, and the Arts Councils of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Maher is a member of Aosdána and the RHA.Pádraic E. Moore, March 2019

Alice Maher

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) BATHTIME, 1994

titled on reverse; also inscribed on exhibition label on reverse

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) THE MISTAKE, 1994

inscribed on exhibition label on reverse

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) COLLAR, 2003

titled on Purdy Hicks Gallery label on reverse

Alice Maher (b.1956) Did I Really Kill All Seven of Them? (1990)

Alice Maher (b.1956) Did I Really Kill All Seven of Them? (1990) mixed media on paper signed on reverse h:133  w:103.50 cm. Provenance: Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin (label verso); Private Collection Exhibited: Irish Museum of Modern Art: SIAR 50: 50 Years of Irish Art from the collections of the Contemporary Irish Art Society (CIAS) 2006 Recognised as one of Ireland's foremost artists, Alice Maher explores contemporary female experience through the prisms of history, fairytales and myth. She has ranged freely across quite a range of media, from sculpture, often using unorthodox materials, to animated film and painting. But it's fair to say that, from the beginning, graphic work has been at the heart of her vision. Some of her best series of drawings feature a capricious young heroine, perhaps an Alice in Wonderland alter ego, who gains a sense of her own power and potential even as the world conspires to deny it to her.

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) WATCHING THE WIND, 1991

signed with initials lower right; signed with initials, titled and dated on reverse

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) THE SNAIL CHRONICLES, 2004 (SET OF FOUR)

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) THE SNAIL CHRONICLES, 2004 (SET OF FOUR) intaglio; (no. 2 from an edition of 30) each signed, titled and numbered along lower edge h:11.25  w:11.25 in. Provenance: Collection of George and Maura McClelland Set includes: Bedtime, Double Derawing, Fever Bush and Sleep of Ecstasy.

Alice Maher (b.1956) Three Objects (1995)

Alice Maher (b.1956) Three Objects (1995) acrylic on paper signed, titled & dated '95 on reverse h:91  w:82 cm. Provenance: Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (label verso) Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin (label verso) Private Collection Exhibited: Alice Maher:'Becoming':Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), 2012

§ Alice Maher (Irish, b. 1956) - Fever Bush - signed lower right and inscribed "The Snail Chronicles (fever bush)"

§ Alice Maher (Irish, b. 1956) Fever Bush signed lower right "Alice Maher" and inscribed "The Snail Chronicles (fever bush)" etching, numbered 3/30, Stoney Road Press blind stamp h:28.50 w:28.50 cm Provenance: The Purdy Hicks Gallery, 65 Hopton Street, Bankside, London, SE1; Kettle's Yard, Cambridge.

ALICE MAHER | Union

charcoal

Alice Maher (b.1956) Red Arch / Archway (1995)

Alice Maher (b.1956) Red Arch / Archway (1995) acrylic on paper signed & dated '95 on reverse h:90  w:81 cm. Provenance: Green on Red Gallery, Dublin Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin Private Collection, London Exhibited: Alice Maher: Becoming, Irish Museum of Modern Art 2012

Alice Maher (b.1956) Dome of Forgetfulness

Alice Maher (b.1956) Dome of Forgetfulness bronze with glass dome, unique h:31  w:33 d:33 cm. Provenance: Retrospective Exhibition Irish Museum of Modern Art October '12 - February '13 Hillsboro Fine Art Dublin Private Collection Exhibited: Alice Maher Becoming Irish Museum of Modern Art 6th October 2012 - 3rd February 2013 Literature: Becoming - Alice Maher, Irish Museum of Irish Art Foreward by Sarah Glennie Illustrated on page 29 IMMA Exhibition Catalogue accompanies this lot

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) JARDIN DE MON COEUR, 1991 (SUITE OF 4)

each signed with initials lower right; three of four dated lower right; titled and dated again on reverse; with original exhibition label also on reverse

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) RUTH

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) COMA BERENICES II, 1999

signed in the margin lower right, titled centre and numbered lower left

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) COMA BERENICES, 1999

signed in the margin lower right, titled centre and numbered lower left

Alice Maher ARHA (b.1956) PALISADE and HELMET, 2003

Alice Maher (b. 1956) "The Mirrda," mixed media on

Alice Maher (b. 1956) "The Mirrda," mixed media on paper, 11 1/2" x 8" (29cms x 20cms). Provenance: The Bell Table Art Centre, Limerick, Oct. 1989. (1)

Alice Maher ARHA (b. 1956)

TRYST (THE EARTHLY GARDEN), 2009; charcoal on paper;

Alice Maher b. 1956 Swimmer

Alice Maher b. 1956 Swimmer

Alice Maher (b.1956) LOVERS, 2007 charcoal on

Alice Maher (b.1956) LOVERS, 2007 charcoal on Arches paper 152 by 104cm., 60 by 41in. Purdy Hicks Gallery, London; Private collection Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, 2007; Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, 2007; 'Natural Artifice', Brighton and Hove Museum; Djanogly Art Centre, Nottingham, 2007; 'Alice Maher: The Night Garden', RHA Gallgher Gallery, Dublin, 14 September - 28 October 2007 Lovers is an emblematic work from Maher's 'Night Garden series' which draws inspiration from the intricately detailed masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1503-1504 by Hieronymus Bosch. It is a fitting source of inspiration for Alice Maher whose work is rooted in folklore and fairy tales as well as medieval and cultural history. Similar to the Dutch artist's triptych, which is rich with enchanted scenes of carnal desire, Maher's 'Night Garden' works explore and question the perils of life's temptations through the medium of charcoal and pencil embodied in the profiles of what she calls 'bestiary'. These 'bestiary' figures are fusions of human, animal, bird and fruit combinations as depicted by Bosch in his interpretation of the Fall of Mankind. Maher then embellishes the negative spaces created by these creatures with decorative patterns and motifs ranging from such diverse sources as eighteenth century wallpaper to Pompeian panels and contemporary headscarves. The fragility of these 'beasts' is reinforced by the artist's choice of medium; the delicate charcoal dust. The Night Garden Drawings continue to influence Maher's work and have provided her with fertile material for her forthcoming solo exhibition entitled, 'The Music of Things', which will take place in the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, 12 November to 23 December, 2009. This new body of work will comprise "film drawings" (a new departure for Maher), limited edition prints and two sculptural works.

Alice Maher (b.1956) COMA BERENICES, 1999

Alice Maher (b.1956) COMA BERENICES, 1999 exhibition label on reverse charcoal on paper 181 by 151cm., 71.2 5 by 59.5in> Exhibited: 'Knot: Alice Maher Draws from the Collection', Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 21 April - 10 June 1999 Literature: Exhibition review by Dorothy Walker, Sunday Times, 2 May 1999, illustrated Alice Maher has long been interested in myths, fairy tales and childhood games, and frequently explores these themes in her work. This drawing belongs to a series of four monumental pieces entitled Coma Berenices (Bernice's hair), which the artist produced in response to a residence at the Hugh Lane Gallery. In 1998 Maher was invited to curate an exhibition of works on paper from the permanent collection at the Hugh Lane. After several months of sifting through the collection, she selected a diverse group of thirty-nine drawings and watercolours ranging from George Chinnery to Jack Yeats. She was particularly inspired by two works: Paul Klee's Anima Errante and Keith Henerson's Sleep Works which are, in Maher's words "from the opposing poles of art history" Alice Maher, quoted in the Hugh Lane exhibition catalogue, 1999, p. 58). Dorothy Walker, reviewing the exhibition, wrote of Maher's four drawings: "Alice Maher is the superb draughtswoman" of the age in this medium. Her huge charcoal drawings of women's hair are feats of dense, obsessive drawing unequalled in contemporary practice...The drawings repeat Klee's labyrinthine theme in taking the errant line into rich, dense coils of hair. Her obsession with women's hair is a feminist stance, illustrating how the 'crowning glory' represents women's identity...The drawings are superb: the fine lines represent as closely as possible the reality of the subject in scale and appearance, while retaining the intrinsic character of a drawing..."Coma Berenices relates to the myth of Beatrice, who sacrificed her hair to the gods for the return of her husband from the wars. She was rewarded for what was seen as this supreme sacrifice by eing placed in the skies as a constellation of stars, where she shines to this day>

Alice Maher (b.1956) HYBRIDA (NIGHT GARDEN

Alice Maher (b.1956) HYBRIDA (NIGHT GARDEN SERIES), 2006 charcoal on paper 152 by 102cm., 60 by 40in. Exhibited: Purdy Hicks, Gallery, London, 2006; 'Alice Maher: The Night Garden', RHA Gallagher Galleries, Dublin, September 2007

Alice Maher (b.1956) COMA BERENICES, 1999

Alice Maher (b.1956) COMA BERENICES, 1999 exhibition label on reverse charcoal on paper 183 by 151cm., 72 by 59.5in. exhibited: 'Knot: Alice Maher Draws from the Collection', Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 21 April - 10 June 1999 literature: Exhibition review by Dorothy Walker, Sunday Times, 2 May 1999, illustrated alice Maher has long been interested in myths, fairy tales and childhood games, and frequently explores these themes in her work. This drawing belongs to a series of four monumental pieces entitled Coma Berenices (Berenice's hair), which the artist produced in response to a residence at the Hugh Lane Gallery. In 1998 Maher was invited to curate an exhibition of works on paper from the permanent collection at the Hugh Lane. After several months of sifting through the collection, she selected a diverse group of thirty-nine drawings and watercolours ranging from George Chinnery to Jack Yeats. She was particularly inspired by two works: Paul Klee's Anima errante and Keith Hen erson's Sleep, works which are, in Maher's words 'from the opposing poles of art history' (Alice Maher, quoted in the Hugh Lane exhibition catalogue, 1999, p. 58). dorothy Walker, reviewing the exhibition, wrote of Maher's four drawings: Alice Maher is the superb draughtswoman of the age in this medium. Her huge charcoal drawings of women's hair arevfeats of dense, obsessive drawing unequalled in contemporary practice... The drawings repeat Klee's labyrinthine theme in taking the errant line into rich, dense coils of hair. her obsession with women's hair is a feminist stance, illustrating how thev"crowning glory" represents women's identity... The drawings are superb: the fine lines represent as closely as possible the reality of the subject in scale and appearance, while retaining the intrinsic character of a drawing... Coma Berenices relates to the myth of Beatrice, who sacrificed her hair to the gods for the return of her husband from the wars. She was rewarded for what was seen as this supreme sacrifice by being placed in the skies as a constellation of stars, where she shines to this day.

m - ALICE MAHER B.1956

COMA BERENICES (1 OF 4) 181.5 by 152.5cm.; 71½ by 60in. charcoal on paper EXHIBITED Dublin, The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Knot - Alice Maher Draws from the Collection, 1999, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue; Boston, McMullen Museum of Art, Irish Art Now: From the Poetic to the Political, October - December 1999, with tour to Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador and Chicago Cultural Center, no.17, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue. NOTE 'The giant coils of Coma Berenices are seen from a distance clearly as images of entwining hair, while up close they become all-enveloping curtains of line and energy. They are knots of drawing that shift between the gigantic and the miniature, the single and the multiple image. But most of all they are knots of the labour and time, memory and longing that went into their making.' (Alice Maher, 1999, in exh.cat. op.cit, p.59) The series of four monumental Coma Berenices were the result of the period the artist spent in residence at The Dublin City Art Gallery The Hugh Lane in 1998 when she was specifically asked to look at The Hugh Lane's collection of works on paper. She was particualarly inspired by Keith Henderson's Sleep and Anima errante by Paul Klee, 'two works from the opposing poles of art history' (Maher, op.cit., p.58). Born in Cahir, Co. Tipperary, Maher studied at the University of Ulster, Belfast and at the San Franciso Art Institute in California. Amongst many other important exhibitions, her work was included in Irish Art of the Eighties at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; Strongholds: New Art from Ireland at the Tate Gallery, London and Art, Grandeur, Nature at Seine Saint-Denis, Paris. Her work is also held in the permanent collection of museums such as the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; The Hugh Lane, Dublin and in the Collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Alice Maher (Irish, b.1956)

Chain mail 2002 ink on paper 101 x 76cm (39 3/4 x 30in)

Alice Maher (b.1956) THE CITY and RUNNING GIRL, 1994 signed and inscribed on reverse of canvas oil and acrylic on canvas with a cast bronze

Alice Maher (b.1956) THE CITY and RUNNING GIRL, 1994 signed and inscribed on reverse of canvas oil and acrylic on canvas with a cast bronze sculpture (unique) 249 by 130cm., 98 by 51in. Exhibited: Alice Maher: Familiar', Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 11 January - 18 February 1995 and the Orchard Gallery, Derry, 25 February - 25 March 1995 Literature: Cecile Bourne, 'Interview with Alice Maher', pages 22-27 in Familiar, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, 1995, page 25 and illustrated page 20; Aidan Dunne, 'Ambiguous Images of Familiarity', The Tribune Magazine, 8 January 1995; Aidan Dunne, 'Visual Art', The Tribune Magazine, 24 March 1996, page 15, illustrated; Medb Ruane, 'Too close to call' (review of the Glen Dimplex Award nominees at IMMA), The Sunday Times, 31 March 1996, illustrated; Alice Maher, Necklace of Tongues, limited edition artist's book, Coracle Publishing, Clonmel, 2001 Aidan Dunne described Maher's 'Familiar' exhibition as consisting of a 'series of tall, large paintings ... each accompanied by its 'familiar', a sculptural object, anything from a couple of inches to a couple of yards in size'. He went on to describe the houses depicted in The City as 'simplified representations of all the buildings - and in one case, a tent - that she [Maher] has lived in. They make up a freeform village of indeterminate scale. It could be made of building blocks, or it might be life sized. It's accompanied by a bronze of a running girl, running apparently, straight out of the wall'. Maher's sketches for this work were later reproduced in a limited edition artist's book, Necklace of Tongues, in which she labels each of the buildings represented with their location: Frankfurt, Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Belfast, Harlem and so on. Speaking about the work in an interview, Maher commented: 'I wanted the viewer to feel either tiny and able to get inside and run around in that space, or to feel gigantic and able to pick up and change around the shapes at will. The fact that the pictures [The City and Familiar] are so tall and thin encourages this feeling of vertigo and invites the kind of engagement you refer to, like playing on video game where you experience 'getting into' the space on a flat screen in front of you' (in interview with Cecile Bourne, 1994). Born in Tipperary, Alice Maher studied at the University of Limerick before attending the Crawford College of Art, Cork, where she studied Fine Art. In 1986 she obtained a Masters in Fine Art from the University of Ulster and later studied painting, at the San Francisco Art Institute. She has held numerous solo exhibitions throughout Ireland and abroad and is represented in most major public collections including the Hugh Lane Gallery, IMMA, OPW and the Arts Council of Ireland.