The celebrated Irish artist Michael Kane, who opened an exhibition of new work on Thursday, has died at the age of 89.
Mr Kane, who would have turned 90 on Monday, died on Friday afternoon after a short illness, his family said in a statement.
Speaking to The Irish Times a few weeks ago, Kane acknowledged there was a possibility he might not reach 90, saying: “Without actually trying, I do find myself living more in the moment than in the future or in the past.”
The artist and writer from Dublin celebrated the opening of his solo exhibition of new work at the Taylor Galleries on Kildare Street, Dublin, on Thursday night with close family.
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His work is also currently on display at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) and Hillsboro Fine Art in Dublin.
Kane was still producing work in his studio this month and attended the opening of a major exhibition, Staying with the Trouble, at Imma, which featured several of his paintings.
Born in Dublin in 1935, he was raised in Wicklow, before returning to the capital in 1956 to study at the National College of Art and Design.
At the time, he said he was surprised to be accepted and more surprised to receive praise for his work by a tutor.
“I was in my early 20s, and that was the first person who ever praised anything I did. It was of tremendous significance to me,” he said.
Since the 1960s, Kane has worked consistently, exhibiting his painting, drawing and print in Ireland and Europe including shows in Hugh Lane Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), and Imma.
He was also among the first members of Aosdána, the affiliation association of creative artists in Ireland, and was a pivotal figure in the Independent Artists, a group created as an alternative to the RHA and the Living Art exhibition.
In his 2023 memoir, Blind Dogs, he wrote: “We were ambitious not just for our individual selves, but for art itself.”
Kane was also a co-founder of the Project Arts Centre, and the editor of the sociopolitical art journal, Structure.
Speaking to The Irish Times this year, Kane said he wondered if he would work again after spending part of 2024 in ill health.
He subsequently began to paint while sitting down at a table instead of standing, “to see what would come.”
In the wide-ranging interview, he said:
“Most people are very intelligent, but they don’t use parts of their brain a lot of the time and I think if they observed more, they would enjoy living a lot more.”
Kane is survived by his widow, architect Shelley McNamara, his children Aoife and Oisín, and his brother Tony.
