Aosdána has expressed its sadness at the death of sculptor and Aosdána member Michael Warren.
Born in Gorey, Co. Wexford in 1950, Michael Warren studied at Bath Academy of Art; Trinity College, Dublin and at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, 1971 – 1975.
He is perhaps best known for his large-scale, site-responsive sculptures in wood. These abstract constructions typically maintain a sense of lightness despite their size and mass. His major public commissions in Ireland include sculptures made for RTÉ, Dublin Port Authority, Trinity College Dublin, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and the Civic Offices on Wood Quay, Dublin. In 2002, he completed a major installation in corten steel for East Point Business Park in Dublin.
Maura McGrath, Chair of the Arts Council, said: “It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Michael Warren, one of Ireland’s visionary sculptors. Over the course of a remarkable career that spanned five decades, Michael created powerful, contemplative works that transformed public spaces both in Ireland and around the world. Michael Warren’s contribution to Irish art is immeasurable. On behalf of the Arts Council, I extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and all those inspired by his extraordinary work.”
Cecily Brennan, Chair of the Toscaireacht said: “On behalf of Aosdána I express our sadness at the death of Michael Warren. Michael spoke eloquently about his work and practice. Interviewed in 2000 he said: “We stand upright in defiance of gravity; every time we take a step we counteract a fall. In as much as we are matter, we share with every other part of the manifest world precisely the same subjection to gravitational force. This is necessity, not choice – it is part of the human condition, as its acknowledgment is a part of our humanity”
The history of large-scale public sculpture in Ireland is chequered, works failing many times to understand the importance of material, scale and concept. Michael Warren’s sculptures, large scale and small were made with an awareness of the constraint on the maker to integrate the sculpture with architecture or landscape, converting restriction to solution, resulting in a twinning that seems, in retrospect, inevitable from the start.
Michael acknowledges the influence of his secondary school teacher, Frank Morris, Camille Souter’s husband. He died tragically young. “With his help, I made my first sculpture. It was a direct carving in beech called Torso. As an art teacher, I never met his equal: he imparted his love of form, craft, and material.”
His work and presence will be greatly missed by all in Aosdána.
His major public commissions in Ireland include sculptures made for RTÉ, Dublin Port Authority, Trinity College Dublin, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Civic Offices on Wood Quay, Dublin and in 2001, Tulach a’ tSolais, a collaborative project with architect, Ronnie Tallon.
Internationally, his sculptures can be seen in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; at the Olympic Sculpture Park, Seoul, South Korea; and in Japan, Andorra, France, Spain, Portugal, Ecuador, the U.S.A. and the French West Indies.
Recent solo shows include (2002) Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork (2010-11) Unbroken Line VISUAL Carlow; (2010 Kiera) Hillsboro Fine Art; (2012 )Predella RHA Dublin; (2013) All on that Day, The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon; (2014) Limerick City Gallery; (2015) Galerie Weiler, Paris; (2022) From the Studio, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin.”
Michael won the Alice Berger Hammerschlag scholarship and a Macaulay fellowship in 1978, the Mont Kavanagh Award for Environmental Art in 1980 and 1983, the Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum Award in Japan in 1989, the Medalla al Merito Artistico in Madrid in 1991, while in 2001, Tulach a’ tSolais, a collaborative project with architect, Ronnie Tallon, was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Architecture Prize.