THE WELL-KNOWN and colourful artist Paul Funge (67) has died after a short illness.
A native of Gorey, Co Wexford, he was a founder of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin and the founder of Gorey Arts Centre in 1970. He was also a founder of the Belltable Arts Centre in Limerick while the regional arts officer for the midwest.
In addition he established the Gorey Arts Festival – a three-week summer arts festival – and ran it for more than 15 years.
A painter of portraits and landscapes, he taught art in many schools including Clongowes Wood College and Newbridge College. He also lectured at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), the University of California, and Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Amsterdam.
He was also an inspector for art in the Department of Education for some years.
As a portrait artist his sitters included U2’s Adam Clayton, Frank McGuinness and Colm Tóibín as well as many ministers and academics.
Eamon Carter, director of Gorey School of Art, paid tribute to him last night as a visionary who felt passionate about decentralising the arts to areas outside of Dublin.
He said it had just been announced that the Gorey School of Art was linking up with NCAD to provide a masters in fine arts and it was sad that in the week it received such good news it also received the sad news of Mr Funge’s death.
“I’m saddened that he wasn’t here to see that because he would have been chuffed obviously,” he said.