Tighe O'Donoghue/Ross (April 15, 1942 - May 30, 2023) was an Irish-American painter, engraver, and sculptor. He was the recognised hereditary chieftain of the Rapparee Sept the O'Donoghues of Ross.
He was better known as the artist and sculptor who created An Capall Mór, part of 'The Sculpture Road to Killarney' along the N22 traveling to Killarney from Cork, the stained glass windows in St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney, entitled "Dawn & Dusk", dedicated to his ancestors, and the large bronze of St Brendan on a seamount overlooking Fenit Harbour, Brendan's birthplace.
He was also known as Ross, Thomas O'Donohue, O'Donohue Ros, Ros.
Early life
Born Thomas Martin O'Donohue in Brooklyn, New York in 1942, he was fascinated with drawing from a very young age and pursued his talent by obtaining an Associate Arts degree from State University of New York at Farmingdale.
After working briefly in commercial art, he entered the United States Air Force, where he was appointed Flight Commander and then spent a tour in Libya, where he was assigned the duties of a Combat Artist during the French-Algerian War. After leaving the USAF, he worked for a time at the Doubleday & Co. publishing house, being promoted to Managing Editor of Dolphin Books. He continued his pursuit of art and also illustrated several books during this period, including creating original sepia etchings for John Gardner's Nickel Mountain, the cover of which was included in the 1975 jury exhibition at The American Institute of Graphic Arts, "Cover '75/Catch the Eye".
Education and teaching career
O'Donoghue continued his study at university, earning a BFA and MFA, graduating magna cum laude from Lehman College of City University of New York in 1970. He taught at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art for a few years and was then offered the opportunity to teach at his alma mater, but he decided against it and moved instead with his wife and young son to a wilderness cabin in upstate New York in the late 1970s.
Early career
O'Donoghue/Ross became well known as a printmaker during the 1970s boom years of the art market in the US, selling editions through various print publishers. His paintings and sculpture were also represented at Vorpal Galleries (Soho and San Francisco). He represented Ireland in the Biennale Internationaile de Gravure at the Moderna Galerija Ljubljana. He moved farther north to the coast of Maine in the early 1980s. In 1986 he traveled with his family to Ireland.
Work
O'Donoghue/Ross has explored nearly every medium of visual expression. He has also experimented in various styles, from veristic (his St Brendan sculpture) to abstract (his Cathedral windows) though he has always returned to his own brand of neo-surrealism. As explained in a lengthy full-page set of articles about his "Mists of Time" exhibition that traveled the country under the auspices of the Siamsa Tíre Theatre and Arts Centre in County Kerry in 1995, he "pursues his own vision, on his own terms, moving from painting to sculpting to printmaking, from realistic to abstract to allegory, working in whatever style fulfilled his need to express the idea or emotion he wished to portray".
In his artist's statement for The Gathering 2013 catalog, he explained "My motivation is hard to define except to say that by making things I keep myself from being bored. That is the same reason that I constantly change focus, from sculpture in all forms to etchings, stained glass to painting, drawing and anything and everything in between."
Prints
O'Donoghue/Ross' graphic work was mainly produced on multiple copper plates for each image, using etching, engraving, aquatint, mezzotint, drypoint and occasionally monoprints.
"He is reminiscent of de Chirico in his bold clarity of manner. But these coloured prints are more intimate, and disconcertingly confident, than de Chirico’s echoing streets."
"...his mezzotints and etchings are conceptually neat, solidly crafted images which wear their substantial concerns lightly."
Sculpture
O'Donoghue/Ross began working in three dimension by modelling in the lost wax process, then moved to direct carving in stone and wood. He began stone carving with a pink granite stone he pulled from the ditch of his property in County Kerry and expanded from there. He has used both conventional and unconventional mediums to fashion his pieces, sometimes using unlikely found objects to create amalgamations of various combinations.