One of MacManus’s most recognisable sculptures is ‘linesman’, on City Quay.
Dominic Gallagher
Contributing Writer
Last night the Laurentian society and the Italien society were treated to a fascinating talk by Dony MacManus, an artist at the forefront of his field, in the GSU common room. As one History of Art student aptly commented ‘I study art but here I encountered the real thing’.
MacManus’ passion for art was evident throughout his talk and convincingly proved by a personal anecdote, in his earlier struggles as a young artist he had four times survived attempts to have his house repossessed.
He believes passionately that art is about beauty and that beauty is most fully expressed when it is allied to a deep understanding of the human form. Abstract art that operates in a void is bland and ugly. He described an abstract work called ‘Game piece’ that he had created for the N4 Motorway as a ‘meaningless blob’. He had designed it in an hour and a half whereas the sculpting of a figure generally takes three months of hard work. He knew his banal design would be chosen because as he put it, abstract art is so empty of meaning that it would offend the least amount of people and fit perfectly at the side of a motorway.
MacManus described the ethos underpinning his growing art studio in the beautiful Italian city of Florence. His students reconnect with a lost Italian artistic tradition through intense study of the human skeleton and anatomy. It is only then when they understand the dictionary of sculpture that they are free to use its language. They can create great art works that can express beauty, grace, elegance, harmony.
A deeply religious man, MacManus argued ardently that the modern world has lost its sense of beauty because it has lost its faith in God. The loss of traditional understanding of beauty has occurred throughout the art world. Interestingly he laments the modernist and postmodernist movement in literature. MacManus claimed that we are no longer open to the beauty of the world because we are convinced that life is meaningless. He sees the beauty of art as a way of creating a sense of rapture and reawakening the world from its spiritual slumber. There have been some telling results. Nine students have converted to Catholicism since the project began and the region’s Cardinal is so excited by these developments that he has asked to be made patron of the academy.
The artist finished on a hopeful note, rhapsodising over one of his students he believes could be ‘the next Bernini’ and who had already been commissioned to create all the sculptures for an entire cathedral. I sadly do not remember this artist’s name but on the basis of MacManus’ testimony I have firm belief that time will only compound my error. I guess you almost heard it here first.
