Robert Ballagh

Who is Robert Ballagh?

Robert "Bobby" Ballagh is an Irish artist, painter and designer. He was born in Dublin and studied at the Bolton Street College of Technology. His painting style was strongly influenced by pop art. He is particularly well known for his hyperealistic renderings of well known Irish literary, historical or establishment figures.

Ballagh grew up in a ground-floor flat on Elgin Road in Ballsbridge, the only child of a Presbyterian father and a Catholic mother, both of whom had played sport for Ireland. He became an atheist while being educated at Blackrock College. Before turning to art as a profession, he was a professional musician with the showband Chessmen. He met artist Michael Farrell during this period, and Farrell recruited him to assist with a large mural commission, which was painted at Ardmore Studios.

Ballagh represented Ireland at the 1969 Biennale de Paris. Among the theatre sets he has designed are sets for Riverdance,I'll Go On, Gate Theatre, Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Oscar Wilde's Salomé. He has also designed over 70 Irish postage stamps and the last series of Irish banknotes, "Series C", before the introduction of the euro. He is a member of Aosdána. Ballagh's paintings are held in several public collections of Irish painting including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Ulster Museum, Trinity College Dublin, and Nuremberg's Albrecht Dürer House.