Painting The Troubles
A new art exhibition — which opened on St. Patrick’s
Day — examines The Troubles from a fresh perspective and has found
an unexpected home at the National Army Museum. GRAINNE McLOUGHLIN reports
on the work of Ralph Lillford.
By GRAINNE McLOUGHLIN
 An art exhibition
— which explores the impact of the Northern Irish conflict as a
creative stimulus — has found itself an unusual home: London’s
National Army Museum.
Opened on St. Patrick’s Day, Ralph Lillford’s exhibition of
urban conflict imagery was born from his resolve ‘not to be deflected
from confronting the sharp edge of human experience’.
Between 1971 and 1976 Lillford made repeated trips to Northern Ireland
to draw what he saw in the streets.
He says: “On several occasions in Belfast I have been arrested by
the army and by the Irish police for being on location and drawing.
“On one occasion I was surrounded by six highly-armed Royal Marines
who were insistent and in fact I was carted off to a military encampment.
I had my drawings confiscated and I had to go to Lisburn to see the Commanding
Officer of Belfast to get permission to get all my drawings back from
them, so I was pretty indignant about that.”
He recalls being chased and stoned on the Creggan Estate and being detained
by armed men in balaclavas but that only made Lillford more determined
to ‘draw what he saw’ despite personal risk from paramilitary
organisations and the British Army.
And Jenny Spencer-Smith, Head of Fine & Decorative Art at the National
Army Museum has sought to recognise his work by providing a platform whereby
it can be appreciated.
 She
says: “Ralph Lillford’s work deserves wider recognition. He
takes a very vigorous approach to painting — his practice is to
paint on any available piece of board, preferring hard surfaces to canvas,
which allows for other, more dynamic techniques such as graffito and rubbing
with a wire brush, or incorporating collage materials.
His keen eye for the curious and personal have resulted in a series
of individual, sometimes symbolic, illustrations of life in Northern Ireland
in the 70s — for the people who lived there and the soldiers who
served there.”
Painting the Troubles is open to the public until September 24 and
admission is free.
Ralph Lillford
Lillford completed his National Service as a sergeant with the Royal
Army Educational Corps and as an instructor with 21 Supply Platoon Royal
Army Service Corps, while stationed in the Middle East from July 1952
to 1954.
Following his demobilisation, he took up a scholarship at the Royal College
of Art, then embarked on a career which combined teaching with an active
practice as a professional artist.
He was later awarded a doctorate for his study of William Hogarth’s
engravings illustrating Samuel Butler’s satirical poem Hudibras.
He also determined a method for dating undocumented Hogarth prints and
helped to catalogue the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Now resident in Australia, Ralph Lillford continues to paint professionally,
having retired from his post as Principal Lecturer at Richmond, the American
International University in London, in 1997.
Since completing a large, complex mural for a church in Queensland, he
has worked on a number of projects, including a 15-foot square bas relief
in aluminium of the Australian Light Horse for the veteran’s organisation,
the Returned & Services League, in Coff’s Harbour, New South
Wales.
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