An Investigation into the Controversy Surrounding the Exhibition of Mick O’Dea’s Portrait of Brian Meehan in the 2003 Annual Exhibition at the RHA

Rosie Keane
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2008
BA

Subject: Painting
Country: Ireland
Period: 20th Century

10,000 words

In 2003, Mick O’Dea chose to exhibit his portrait of Brian Meehan, the convicted murderer of Irish journalist, Veronica Guerin. This dissertation aims to reveal some of the less aired aspects behind the relentless fog of publicity which has thwarted a fair assessment of this controversial portrait which was included in the RHA’s 173rd Annual Exhibition. The first chapter deals with the social context of the Brian Meehan portrait and how the display context completely overwhelmed the creative context. The second chapter examines what the controversy says about the public perception and expectation of portraiture. The third chapter deals with the idea of ‘shock’ in the arts, questioning whether the Meehan portrait was deliberately intended to shock, and commenting on the frequent comparisons made between O’Dea’s work and Marcus Harvey’s portrait of Myra Hindley from the 1997 Sensation exhibition.

Irish Georgian Society

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An Investigation into the Controversy Surrounding the Exhibition of Mick O’Dea’s Portrait of Brian Meehan in the 2003 Annual Exhibition at the RHA