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= Seamus Murphy (Sculptor) =

= Career =

The Beginning
He worked as trainee stone sculptor at John Aloysius O'Connor's Art Marble Works in Cork from 1922 to 1930. It was known that Murphy began his career in Ireland at a which was seen as a challenging moment for the visual arts. Art was most defiantly not priority for the newly created government, which had just experienced a fight for independence and a civilian war.

When it started
In 1931 Seamus’s career started to take off as he was granted the Gibson Bequest Scholarship Exhibits which was held at the Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition in Co.Dublin. Then in 1932 he was given the opportunity to study alongside the well-known American Sculptor Andrew O’Connor. It was only for one year and it took place at a place called Acadamie Colarossi in Paris.

In 1934 Seamus decided to start his career back home, so he returned and he opened up his own studio and stone yard in a place called Watercourse Road in Blackpool Co. Cork. Some of his work during his time in Blackpool included the Clonmult Monument which is placed in Midleton Co. Cork. Seamus was known to have a particular interest in carving heads. Some of his main works include a carved figure of the medieval Irish female Saint Gobnait in the graveyard known as Ballyvourney. Seamus Murphy mostly worked with stone, and his preferred material was limestone.

He designed the Blackpool Church for a man named William Dwyer in the year 1945 as a memorial to William's daughter Maeve who suddenly passed away in 1943. For a church known as St Brigid in San Francisco, he carved the twelve Apostles in 1948. He was asked to create the bronze portrait busts for John F Kennedy for the US Embassy which is located Dublin. He also created them for five presidents of Ireland.

In 1944 he was selected to be an associate at the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1950 he became famous for a book which he published and it was known as 'stone mad'. The Royal Hibernian offered him a full time membership in 1954. He was then awarded the position to be Professor of Sculptor at the RHA In 1969 for all his success in sculpting he was officially granted an Honorary LLD by the National University of Ireland. Then in 1973 in recognition of his contribution to Irish art, he joined the Arts Council of Ireland.

= References =