Dean of Irish painters and the brother of poet William Butler Yeats, Jack Yeats, who died in 1957, was influenced early in life by French Impressionism. Turning to a kind of Kokoschkan Expressionism which suited the intensity of his frenetic moods, Yeats began to acquire a world-wide reputation during the years of the Irish struggle for independence. As his work evolved into the famous romantic style of his 1933–55 works, (many excellent examples of which are on view at Landau’s) it was not long before he helped to stimulate a rebirth and re-interest in Irish art. His loose forms, sunlight colors, and penchant for the curious, are unexpectedly like an anglicized Ensor. “Vif” is the way the French would define his free, impetuous brushwork. His strange figure-landscapes are interpreted with dedicated vigor and richness, and are weird never-never lands with Irish sun and Irish air. His lovable personalities possess a puckish, sympathetic, confident Abbey Theater spirit of playful non-conformity.

—Arthur Secunda

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