Patrick Graham has been credited by art historians with changing the face of Irish painting, bringing it into the 20th and 21st century, and has been recognized by Ireland as a “living national treasure” through his induction into Aosdána since 1986.
Patrick Graham’s paintings were first exhibited in America to dramatic response in 1986, when the exhibition Four Irish Expressionists was presented by Northeastern University and Boston College. For the occasion, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston presented a symposium where Graham’s works were singled out for critical acclaim by its moderator, the noted art historian and critic Donald Kuspit, declaring, “Patrick Graham’s paintings are masterpieces… on a grand physical, emotional and intellectual scale… they are among the most complicated, salient reflections on modern existence.”
In 1987, Graham’s first American gallery exhibition was presented at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles to an equally formidable response. Graham’s impact on artists is particularly noteworthy, as artists are conspicuously numbered among those who have acquired his works. Since that first exhibition, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts has served as Patrick Graham’s international representative supporting museum exhibitions and symposia throughout the US and Ireland. Among them was a national museum tour originating in
San Francisco and travelling to Washington D.C., Saint Louis, and Texas, before ending its tour at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts. Each venue presented symposiums paneled by, among others, the critic Kenneth Baker, Jack Rutberg and the legendary art historian and critic Peter Selz who stated, “Patrick Graham confronts the viewer with drawings and paintings of shattering force. An admirer of Emil Nolde and a successor of Francis Bacon, Graham makes us aware that great painting has a presence and a future.”
Patrick Graham: Notes from Ireland takes on special distinction in its presentation at the Jack Rutberg gallery, now located in Pasadena. In 1991, Pasadena City College, at the time home to one of the largest art departments in California, brought Patrick Graham from Ireland as Artist-in-Residence, presenting a major exhibition concurrent with an exhibition at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts gallery combined with a series of widely-attended lectures at both venues.
Born in Mullingar, County Westmeath, in 1943, Graham’s talent for drawing was realized as a small child. At 16, he was the youngest recipient to be awarded a scholarship to the National College of Art in Dublin which he attended through 1963. While there he received several major National Awards for drawing, establishing a reputation as one of Ireland’s most brilliant draughtsman. The burden of his “unearned gift”, as he perceived it, bore heavily on Graham during that period. In Ireland’s academic environs, the notion of art as a vehicle for personal expression and contemplation was not yet widely accepted. Graham’s confrontation with these issues led to his personal battle against the “emptiness” of art as mere facility of hand and craft, as well as his struggle for sanity and survival.
His early seclusion of several years from the art world ended with an important turning point in 1974, with the public re-emergence of Patrick Graham in a solo exhibition entitled Notes From a Mental Hospital and Other Love Stories. From that point emerged the evolution of a new expression in the art of Ireland.
Patrick Graham’s work is represented in major public and private collections internationally, and has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and symposiums at the National Gallery of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Trinity College, American University in Washington D.C, Northeastern University, Walker Art Gallery in England, Saint Louis University, Stephen Austin University in Texas, and the Hokkaido Museum in Japan. In 2022, the City of Dublin Ireland’s Municipal Gallery-The Hugh Lane, presented a major retrospective exhibition Patrick Graham: Transfiguration accompanied by a catalogue, lecture series, and educational programs.
Patrick Graham: Notes from Ireland will open with a reception on Sunday, February 1, 2026 from 3:00 – 6:00 P.M. This exhibition will extend through April 18, 2026. Jack Rutberg Fine Arts is located at 600 South Lake Avenue, #102 on the corner of California Avenue in Pasadena. Free parking entrance is on South Lake Avenue, with the gallery entrance through the lobby.
Regular gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM & Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.