Gerald Davis was one of Ireland's

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 leading semi-abstract

Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

 artists. He was also an art gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

 owner, critic, and Joycean

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

 scholar. He was a prominent member of the Jewish community in Ireland. He wrote for Irish national newspapers and broadcast on radio and television, where he reported on the arts and Irish Jewish life.

Career

Davis' grandparents were Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...

. His grandfather came to Ireland in the 1880s. Davis was born in Dublin in 1938, the only child of Sydney and Doris Davis. His family owned a business on Capel Street. Davis had his first solo show in 1962. He had more than 150 solo exhibitions, and his work was also shown in major group exhibitions. His paintings are in many important public and private exhibitions. The Arts Council of Ireland

Arts Council of Ireland

The Arts Council of Ireland was founded in 1951 by the Government of Ireland to encourage interest in Irish art and channel to funding from the state to Irish artists and arts organisations...

 awarded him with a Douglas Hyde Gold Medal for historical painting

History painting

History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait...

 in 1977.

In 1970 Davis opened his own art gallery in Capel Street, where he pioneered young Irish artists and craft-workers, several of whom went on to become Ireland's leading artists. The gallery showed new and established artists, ceramic, textiles, painting and sculpture. Well-known artists who had their early shows in the Davis Gallery include Charlie Harper, John Kelly

John Kelly (artist)

John Kelly was born in Bristol, UK in 1965. His family immigrated to Australia later the same year. In 1985 John obtained a Bachelor of Arts from RMIT University, Melbourne where he also completed his Masters of Arts in 1995...

, Edward Delaney

Edward Delaney

Edward Delaney was an Irish sculptor born in Claremorris in County Mayo in 1930. His best known works include the 1967 statue of Wolfe Tone and famine memorial at the northeastern corner of St Stephen's Green in Dublin and the statue of Thomas Davis in College Green, opposite Trinity College Dublin...

, John Devlin, and Martin Gale. Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh served as the fifth President of Ireland, from 1974 to 1976. He resigned in 1976 after a clash with the government. He also had a notable legal career, including serving as Chief Justice of Ireland.- Early life :Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, one of four children, was born on 12 February...

 opened the gallery's first exhibition, which showed drawings by Edward Delaney. In 1995 President Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...

 opened a twenty-fifth anniversary exhibition of work by 25 artists.

In Dublin, Davis was well-known for masquerading as Leopold Bloom

Leopold Bloom

Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's Ulysses. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in The Odyssey....

, the main character of Ulysses

Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

, and leading Bloomsday

Bloomsday

Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904...

 parades. In 1977 Davis created an exhibition based on Ulysses called "Paintings for Bloomsday". The exhibition opened on Bloomsday, 16 June, in a gallery located on Howth Head

Howth Head

Howth Head is a headland north east of Dublin City in Ireland. Howth falls under the local governance of fingal county council. Entry to the headland is at Sutton while village of Howth and the harbour are on the northern shore. Baily Lighthouse is on the southeastern part of Howth Head...

, the setting of the soliloquy that ends Ulysses. Davis dressed as Leopold Bloom in an Edwardian

Edwardian period

The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...

 suit and bowler hat

Bowler hat

The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...

 in order to publicise and celebrate the event. His appearance caught the attention of the media. After this, Davis appeared as Leopold Bloom at other Bloomsdays and at events in other countries.

Davis was also a strong supporter of young musicians. He founded his own record company, LIVIA Records, in the late 1970s. He produced albums for many of the most distinguished Irish jazz musicians, poets, and actors. Davis lectured on Irish art

Irish art

The early history of Irish art is generally considered to begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced through Bronze Age artefacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the medieval period...

 and literature

Irish literature

For a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.-The beginning of writing in Irish:...

 in Australia, Europe and the US, focusing on James Joyce and Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

.

External links

• 2004 interview with Gerald Davis in the Irish Times.
• Paintings by Gerald Davis.
• Gerald Davis' last solo exhibition.
• On hearing of the death of Gerald Davis, a poem by Fred Johnston
  Fred Johnston
  Wilfred Ivy Johnston , is a former professional baseball player who played infield for the Brooklyn Robins in four games during the 1924 season. He attended college at Davidson College, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina.-External links:...
  
  in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Summer 2006.