The Arts Council has expressed its regret at the passing of sculptor and Aosdana member Conor Fallon. Mr. Fallon died yesterday after a long illness. His wife and fellow Aosdana member Nancy Wynne Jones passed away earlier this year.
Speaking about the loss, Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council said, "The Council is saddened at the passing of Conor Fallon, who was an innovative and accomplished sculptor, as well as an active contributor to the development of the arts in Ireland through his membership of various arts organisations. He was praised for his constructivist style in sculpture and was also well regarded as a painter. His intense love of the natural world, most especially of the animal kingdom, led him to produce a remarkable body of work on horses, birds, hares and other animals that is held in many private and public collections. His death is a great loss to Irish art and our thoughts are with his children John and Bridget."
Born in Dublin in 1939, Conor was raised in Co. Wexford and was the third son of the poet Padraic Fallon. He started to paint in 1957 while a student at Trinity College, Dublin. He moved to Cornwall in 1965.
With the encouragement of the sculptor Denis Mitchell, he turned gradually to sculpture, first exhibiting at Newlyn Orion in 1972, the year he and his wife returned to live in Ireland.
His first Irish one-person exhibition was at the Emmet Gallery in 1977 with other solo exhibitions at the Lad Lane Gallery (1978); Taylor Galleries (1984, 90, 93, 97); and Sligo Art Gallery (1994).
He held a joint exhibition with Sean McSweeney at the RHA Gallagher Gallery in 1996, which subsequently toured Ireland and a solo show at Theo Waddington Fine Art in 1997. He was elected to the RHA in 1989, and had served two terms as RHA Secretary, in 2004 he was made an honorary member.
He was awarded the Oireachtas Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1980, and an Honorary Associateship of the National College of Art and Design in 1993.
Public commissions include St. Patrick's Hospital, Irish Life, University College Dublin, University College Cork and Independent Newspapers.
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