Markey Robinson

Robinson was born on February 7, 1918 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the son of a house painter.

Robinson began drawing at an early age and preferred it to playing outdoors with other children.

His talents were first recognised whilst at Perth Street School were his teacher suggested he received artistic training.

Unfortunately due to financial constraints this was not possible so Robinson held a succession of menial jobs such as dish-washer and pearl-diver until, the age of twenty when he began an apprenticeship in welding.

As a child Robinson "read voraciously on art".

For a time Robinson was a successful amateur featherweight boxer, fighting under the name Boyo Marko.

At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Casualty Service of the Civil Defence.

Robinson trained for a short time at Belfast School of Art in the late 1930s and early 1940s, working for a time with Sidney Smith who held a studio on Howard Street.

He was seen to be a mysterious character who frequently disappeared for long periods of time, only to re-appear with numerous completed paintings.

It is assumed that in these periods of absence that he was working at sea.

Robinson held a studio on the Crumlin Road for a number of years.

Throughout the 1940s Robinson showed with the Ulster Academy of Arts and at Heals Mansard Gallery in London.

During the turmoil of the 1940s he would often take his daughter Annie to Paris were they stayed in refugee camps.

The gallery owner and dealer Hugh Charlton who was amongst the earliest to recognise Robinson's worth commented on his internationalism a few days before the artist's death:"'He is very concerned about Chernobyl, Northern Ireland and any human rights issues. The Troubles in the North are a source of much hardship for him. He simply cannot understand terrorism. The violence drove him out of Belfast and into Dublin in the seventies, but he is back up in the Shankill Road again.'"Robinson showed one painting, simply entitled Painting in the inaugural Irish Exhibition of Living Art in the 1940s.

In his early career Robinson would sell his paintings from the railings of St. Stephen's Green in Dublin and the Country Shop on St. Stephen's Green became his gallery.

By the end of the 1940s Robinson had become an established artist, lauded by the young regionalist poet and founding member of CEMA, John Hewitt, and he was an active figure on the Belfast Arts scene.

Amongst his social group numbered local artists such as Alicia Boyle, Rowel Friers, John Luke, and Colin Middleton and writers such as Roy McFadden and W. R. Rodgers.

One of his closest friends was his mentor, the Ukrainian artist Paul Nietsche who is credited with not only improving Robinson's technique but more importantly for introducing him to the influential art collector Zoltan Lewinter-Frankl.

Frankl too became a close friend and patron, as did the writer F L Green.

Robinson entered two works to the Civil Defence Art Exhibition in 1943.

Bomb Crater in Eglington Street and Fire at the International were accepted from the 1,300 works submitted to the juried exhibition and went on display at Belfast Museum and Art Gallery.

They were later amongst twelve works including Romeo Toogood's Gleno and James McCord's McAdam's Farm, forwarded to London for inclusion in the Civil Defence Exhibition on Bond Street that summer.

In 1944 he married a local stitcher called May Clarke, living initially just a few doors away from his parents.

The couple were to have two daughters, Bernice and Annie.

The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts sponsored a group exhibition in the textile business of William Ewart & Sons on Bedford Street in Belfast in 1944 when Robinson showed alongside Colin Middleton, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and Sidney Smith.

Robinson travelled extensively in his time as a merchant seaman, visiting South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

His work shows the influence of native African and South American art.

He spent time with Native Americans in Canada and travelled on the River Plate and on the Amazon.

Robinson took his family across Europe and spent some time in Paris where he befriended Raoul Dufy and he lived in Spain on the same street as Joan Miró.

Robinson was a great believer that you couldn't be called an artist until you had visited Paris.

In Green's 1945 novel Odd Man Out the character of Lukey Mulquin, a young and eccentric portrait painter was inspired by the ebullience of Markey Robinson.

The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts hosted a one-man exhibition of Robinson's work in 1947.

The exhibition was visited by the cast of Sadlers Wells Opera Company, when the mezza-soprano singer Anna Pollak, who, like Robinson had no formal training, purchased one of his works.

Robinson returned to the CEMA Gallery in the following year where he showed street scenes, portraits, and landscapes.

The exhibition was opened by the actor and Head of CEMA in Northern Ireland, Jack Loudan.

Robinson also arranged an exhibition of Ulster peasant art at Mills and Gray's Gallery on Wellington Street in Belfast in November 1948.

The exhibition showcased craftwork from across Northern Ireland and consisted of pottery, basketwork, toys and painted linen.

Robinson held an exhibition in the unconventional surrounds of Cottar's Kitchen, a cafe on Belfast's Donegall Square in 1950.

In the following year Robinson held a small show in the foyer of the Arts Theatre.

David Marcus Robinson (February 7, 1918 – 28 January 1999) was an Irish painter and sculptor with a primitive representational style.