This selection of some 60 works by the well-known Northern Irish painter Colin Middleton (1910-83) focuses on his astonishing output of Surrealist paintings and drawings from the late 1930s and early 1940s. The works form part of the 400-works collection of Irish art of George and Maura McClelland, good friends and agents of Colin Middleton. The collection includes a total of 90 of Middleton’s paintings and drawings ranging across his entire oeuvre.

Born in Belfast in 1910, Colin Middleton was probaly the most eclectic Irish painter of the 20th century – moving with ease and conviction through Cubist, Surrealist and Expressionist styles throughout his life. Largely self-taught, he worked in the family damask business until 1947 when the opportunity to teach art enabled him to give more time to painting. Throughout the rest of his life, frequently made precarious by poverty, Middleton painted images thrown up by his rich imagination. These derived their strength from two main sources – the passion with which Middleton presented them and the artist’s interest in the colourful life of ordinary people.

The exhibition is curated by Catherine Marshall, Head of the Collection, IMMA. An exhibition guide, with a text by Catherine Marshall, accompanies the exhibition.