BRIAN KENNEDY'S qualities as a printmaker have been widely acknowledged in the past half dozen years he has a rich, subtle and highly individual colour sense, technical expertise and an easily recognisable style.
The Temple Bar Gallery mounts his Lagganstown Prints, some of which are so large that they stretch the concept of the print almost to breaking point. In fact, they amount virtually to mural decoration, since some are 15 feet long and make you wonder what press could have handled, them.
They employ simple formats (there will, inevitably, be some mention of Sean Scully of squares, rectangles and bands of colour, though with subtle variations and avoiding any geometric rigidity. Colours are luminous and deep, but generally muted, with a soft, almost layered surface which suggests pastel almost as much as the more inflexible quality of prints.
These are very beautiful works, though in working on this scale Kennedy is pushing his material and motifs to the limit, and so comes close to the area of decoration. The carborundum prints on view in the Original Print Gallery nearby are mostly a good deal smaller, but they are also more intimate, and the shapes and basic motifs are generally less formal. They also utilise certain surface effects which add an extra dimension and prevent any feeling of monotony.
