Theo McNab was born in Dublin in 1940. Self-taught, the artist developed a unique natural vernacular relating to landscape he associated with an immediately recognisable palette of muted tones.
His landscapes are minimally abstracted compositions organised according to a grid structure. A key element in these ensembles is light, which serves a guide in the depicted perceptive interplay of simplified shapes and geometrical forms. As a general rule, landscape is reduced to its simplest components. Nevertheless, despite this tendency towards simplification and abstraction, McNab possessed an extreme sensitivity and purity deemed rare by his peers.
The artist first exhibited his work in 1971 in Dublin. Later, he enjoyed various notable shows: solo exhibitions at the David Hendriks Gallery (1973, 1975 and 1980) and the Cork Arts Society Gallery (1976); representing Ireland at the prestigious International Festival of Painting in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1975; a two-person show with Charles Tyrrell (with whom he shares some aesthetic sensibilities) at Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin (1987).
He won the Living Art Exhibition’s Carrolls Award in 1971, the Waterford Glass Painting Prize in 1973, and the Scott Tallon Walker Prize at the Oireachtas Exhibition in 1976.
McNab was Head of Fine Arts at the National College of Art and Design from 1988-2000 and was elected as a member of Aosdána, the Irish association of artists, in 1981.
The artist passed away in 2015.
