The college gained a new work of art lately, a painting by Old Columban Conrad Frankel. The picture is in a photo-realistic style and is called 'Tennis Players' and shows a pair of young Edwardian women in dappled light with tennis raquets and long dresses. Conrad is from Co. Cork, left St.Columba's in 1997 and is based in London. He has recently turned to this new style of extremely time-consuming painting from his earlier more unrestrained work. But portraits are still his primary subject matter. Nowadays he is using as his inspiration the earliest photographic portraits from the Victorian era and the early 20th century which he picks up at antique stalls in London. His current works offer an interesting reflection of portraiture from an era when it was believed that photography was set to supercede painting and indeed cause its demise. 'Tennis Players' was bought for the college from profits of the school tuck shop at a much reduced price thanks to the artist.
Scc Art would like to thank Mr. Ronan Swift for being the driving force behind the purchse of this paining and so adding to the College Art Collection.
