One of Ireland's most celebrated artists, Brian Maguire's painting practice is driven by the struggle against inequality and violence, and the pursuit of justice.
His exhibition La Grande Illusion, currently showing at Dublin's Hugh Lane, focuses on a period of intense productivity for the artist, the years 2007–2024, appraising his activism in human rights and his efforts to document the shape-shifting nature of war with its far-reaching impact on the poor and our environment.
This month, he's the subject of a new TV documentary, The Life Of Brian (Maguire), screening on RTÉ One on February 20th. Watch a preview below:
We asked Brian for his choice cultural picks...
FILM
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) by Martin Scorsese. This is a historical crime drama about a string of murders against the Osage Nation in the 1920s. Lily Gladstone, the star of the film, grew up in the Blackfoot reservation in Browning in the state of Montana. I have spent the last five years painting missing and murdered indigenous people in the reservations. Two close friends of mine, the actress Jo Harvey Allen and her artist/musician husband Terry Allen, make a small surprise appearance in the film.
MUSIC
Christy Moore's new album A Terrible Beauty. For thirty years I have listened to him. He is a contradiction because we know his work, and yet he continually reinvents that work with each album, and this one is no different. There is a gentleness in this one, despite his continuous confrontation of the deficiencies of our past and present.
BOOK
The Klu Klux Klan: An American History (2024) by Professor Kristofer Allerfeldt. This book is an exploration of American culture, beginning in 1865 and concluding in 2022. It traces the process of how white power arrived in America. I wanted to understand the relationship between white power and where Trump came from.
THEATRE
Jack Lynch's one-person performance Rambling Tales through the Garden of Ireland, presented in The Mermaid, Bray, was a lovely evening that brought us through the landscape of Wicklow.
GIG
Damien Dempsey's performances at Vicar Street and more recently at the Olympia are extraordinary because in this macho world, he places male mental illness at the heart of his performance, unashamedly so.
PODCAST
35 Years in Jail for Burning a Curtain, from The Guardian. I have known a few men that have spent 30 years in prison, and the damage is evident - The Guardian's podcast is about such a man in England, who ended up behind bars for his lifetime for a non-violent crime. Shame on those who kept him there.
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TECH
Each morning I read the Guardian website and France 24.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
I'd like to visit Chile and Santiago, it's a country I have never been to, but it has always, since the 1970s, featured in my imagination.
The Life Of Brian (Maguire), RTÉ One, February 20th at 10.15pm - catch up afterwards via RTÉ Player. Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion is at the Hugh Lane, Dublin until 18th May 2025 - find out more here.
