Obituary: Conrad Atkinson (1940-2022)

Conrad Atkinson (1940-2022)
International artist and activist

“Perhaps art can’t really make a difference, but it can highlight alternative ways of seeing and living” - Conrad Atkinson*

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has learned with regret of the death last week of the artist, Conrad Atkinson, aged 82.

Conrad Atkinson was born in Cleator Moor, a small mining village in Cumbria, but he had strong ties with Northern Ireland, possibly inspired by the historic association between the two places, Cleator Moor having earned the soubriquet ‘Little Ireland’ following an influx of Irish workers in 1931. His experience of growing up in a declining working-class mining community shaped his politics and practice as an artist and activist. His often provocative blending of conceptual art and controversial subject material to highlight social and political issues led to international recognition, and exhibitions from Tate Britain to the White Box, New York. His work is represented in public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art New York, the National Portrait Gallery London, which purchased his portrait of Gerry Adams (2007), and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collection, which owns ‘New Northern Ireland Wallpaper’ (2007)’.

Atkinson’s confrontational use of art and political activism meant that he was no stranger to controversy and also left the artist facing difficulty with censorship. This came about most notably in 1978 when his painting on the Troubles, ‘Silver Liberties: A Souvenir of a Wonderful Anniversary Year’, was rejected by the Ulster Museum, along with several other pieces included in the Nicholas Serota-curated ‘Art for Society’ touring group exhibition. A number of staff objected to Atkinson’s painting, which includes portraits of the 13 people killed on Bloody Sunday and which they saw as a pro-Republican statement. The work was censored, resulting the transfer of much of the exhibition to the Arts Council Gallery.

He returned to Belfast in 2006 to complete a commission to create works on the evolving peace and reconciliation process, leading to his 2007 exhibition, ‘Some Wounds Healing: Some Birds Singing’, in the Grand Opera House in Belfast. ‘Silver Liberties’ would be displayed at the Golden Thread Gallery in 2012 and, in 2014, the painting was exhibited at the Ulster Museum as part of their ‘Art of the Troubles’ exhibition.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland first introduced his politically-engaged work to Belfast audiences in the 1975 exhibition, ‘A Shade of Green, an Orange Edge’. This exhibition, part of a series organised by the Arts Council in partnership with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to explore the role of contemporary art in relation to labour, capital, ownership, culture and politics, came at a time when art exhibitions which addressed social problems and issues about violence, counter-violence and injustice were rare in Northern Ireland.

Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, paid tribute:

“Conrad Atkinson has been described as one of the most thoroughly humanist artists of our time, and his was certainly one of the most urgent voices, compelling, provoking us, to confront the more painful social, political and economic realities of modern life. His work, driven always by a genuine commitment to make the world a better place, showed us the power that art possesses as an instrument for social change, and reminded us that art is not separate from life.”

*Conrad Atkinson in conversation with Sue Hubbard for Artist’s Newsletter.