Brian O’Doherty was born in Ireland and moved to New York in 1957. A qualified medical doctor, O’Doherty also became renowned as an artist, writer, television host, and educator. Consistently exploring the multiple nature of identity, he adopted various personae, most notably 'Patrick Ireland', who was buried at IMMA in 2008. Major retrospectives of O’Doherty/Ireland’s work were held at the National Museum of American Art, The Elvehjem Museum of Art, The Butler Institute of American Art (1994), Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane and the Grey Art Gallery, New York.