Arthur Dooley
Arthur John Dooley (17 January 1929 – 7 January 1994) was an English artist and sculptor.[1][2]
Biography
Born in the
Works
Dooley's medium was usually scrap-metal or bronze. He sculpted mainly religious works including the Risen Christ in the
For the now-demolished 1971 Church of the Resurrection in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, Dooley created a metal sculpture of The Resurrected Christ on the sanctuary wall and a sculpture of Our Lady, now installed in St Andrew and St Cuthbert Church in Kirkcudbright.[8]
One of his notable works Dachau is in Gallery Oldham. In honour of a famous union dispute he made The Fisher Bendix Tree, which included some parts from old radiators. This was purchased by Oldham Art Gallery but was never displayed. It was reportedly last seen rusting away in the yard of the gallery during the 1980s.[citation needed] Dooley was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in February 1970 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.[6] His studio in Liverpool was notoriously untidy, and is reportedly untouched since his death.[6]
Manchester Martyrs
To commemorate the 1967 centenary of the execution of the Manchester Martyrs, the Manchester Connolly Association commissioned Dooley to produce a memorial sculpture to stand on the site of New Bailey prison in Salford, where the martyrs had been hanged. There was opposition to the proposal, and it seems that the sculpture was never made, let alone installed.[9] Dooley did however produce a foot-high maquette which now forms part of the collection of the Working Class Movement Library in Manchester. The maquette suggests that the memorial was to consist of a granite base with three standing steel pillars with attached Celtic shields each bearing a martyr's name as well as some detail of the event's significance.[10][9] The maquette was donated to the WCML in 2011 by the family of Jud Cooper who had been given the maquette by Dooley.[9]
La Pasionaria
Dolores Ibárruri,
The statue was funded by money raised by Trade Unionists and Labour movement supporters.[12] However, the £3,000 raised was insufficient for the statue to be cast in bronze.[13] Instead, an armature was welded together from scrap iron and covered in fibreglass. The final version of the monument is a stylised female figure, representing Dolores Ibarruri, in a long dress, standing with legs apart and arms raised. On the plinth, Dooley carved Dolores' famous slogan: 'better to die on your feet than live forever on your knees'. The phrase was first used by the Mexican revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, but Ibarruri gave it new meaning when she used it during the miners strike in Asturias, Spain, in 1934.
Over time, the B listed statue fell into extremely poor condition and this generated criticism from the public, elected officials and trades unionists.[14] A restoration project was carried out between April and August 2010 and the monument was re-dedicated on 23 August 2010 by Leader of the Council, Bailie Gordon Matheson, and General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Grahame Smith, in the presence of Thomas Watters, 97, a surviving International Brigade veteran. Watters was a veteran of the Scottish Ambulance Unit, which worked at the front line on the battlefields of Spain to aid wounded fighters and volunteers from across the world.
References
- ^ "Search Results for England & Wales Births 1837-2006".
- ^ "Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project".
- ^ ISBN 0-953260-95-X.
- ISBN 1-85149-106-6.
- ^ a b c Gary Nisbet. "Arthur Dooley (1929–94). Works in Glasgow". Glasgow—City of Sculpture. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "Arthur Dooley studio". BBC Liverpool. 24 September 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ a b "Archive created for city sculptor". BBC News. 3 February 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ "Church of the Resurrection, Gatehouse of Fleet". Scotland's Churches Trust. 24 September 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Lynette Cawthra (23 November 2015). "The Manchester Martyrs maquette". Working Class Movement Library. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ "Manchester Martyrs Remembered". The Newsletter of the Working Class Movement Library (49). Winter 2015.
- ^ International Brigade Memorial trust. "Roll of Honour". Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ British Listed Buildings. "Clyde Street, Statue of Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria, Glasgow". Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ Gordon Petrie. "Sculptor with something to say is suffering in silence". The Herald. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
- ^ Glasgow City Council. "Restoration of La Pasionara". Retrieved 2 December 2013.