Editing Jack B. Yeats (section)

==Career==
From around 1920, he developed into an intensely [[Expressionist]] artist, moving from illustration to [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]]. He was sympathetic to the [[Irish Republican]] cause, but not politically active. However, he believed that 'a painter must be part of the land and of the life he paints', and his own artistic development, as a [[Modernist]] and [[Expressionist]], helped articulate a modern [[Dublin]] of the 20th century, partly by depicting specifically Irish subjects, but also by doing so in the light of universal themes such as the loneliness of the individual, and the universality of the plight of man. [[Samuel Beckett]] wrote that "Yeats is with the great of our time... because he brings light, as only the great dare to bring light, to the issueless predicament of existence."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brennan |first1=Séamus |title=The Work of Jack B. Yeats |url=http://www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie/publications/release.asp?ID=2047 |access-date=1 July 2009 |archive-date=7 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607171232/http://www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie/publications/release.asp?ID=2047 |url-status=dead }} Speech at the National Gallery of Ireland, 17 July 2007</ref> The Marxist art critic and author [[John Berger]] also paid tribute to Yeats from a very different perspective, praising the artist as a "great painter" with a "sense of the future, an awareness of the possibility of a world other than the one we know".<ref>Berger, John. ''Permanent Red''. Methuen, 1960 repr. Writers & Artists Collective, 1979. 148. {{ISBN|0904613-92-5}}</ref>

His favourite subjects included the Irish landscape, horses, circus and travelling players. His early paintings and drawings are distinguished by an energetic simplicity of line and colour, and his later paintings by an extremely vigorous and experimental treatment of often thickly applied paint. He frequently abandoned the brush altogether, applying paint in a variety of different ways, and was deeply interested in the expressive power of colour. Despite his position as the most important Irish artist of the 20th century (and the first to sell for over £1m), he took no pupils and allowed no one to watch him work, so he remains a unique figure. The artist closest to him in style is his friend, the Austrian painter [[Oskar Kokoschka]].

In 1943, Yeats accepted [[Victor Waddington]] as his sole dealer and business manager. Waddington played a crucial role in building his career and reputation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Clavin |first1=Terry |title=Victor Waddington |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/waddington-victor-a10128 |website=www.dib.ie |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |access-date=20 December 2021}}</ref>

Besides painting, Yeats had a significant interest in [[theatre]] and in [[literature]]. He was a close friend of the playwright and novelist [[Samuel Beckett]]. He designed sets for the [[Abbey Theatre]] and three of his own plays were produced there. His literary works include ''The Careless Flower'', ''The Amaranthers'' (much admired by Beckett), ''Ah Well, A Romance in Perpetuity'', ''And To You Also'', and ''The Charmed Life''.  Yeats's paintings usually bear poetic and evocative titles. He was elected a member of the [[Royal Hibernian Academy]] in 1916.<ref>W. J. Gillan & McCormack, Patrick. ''The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture''. WileyBlackwell, 2001. 624. {{ISBN|0-631-22817-9}}</ref> 

When Yeats's wife, Cottie, passed away in 1947, his art took on a more metaphysical tone and became more nostalgic and optimistic. He continued working through the final years of his life and died in Dublin in 1957.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Richard |title=The forgotten Olympic art competitions: the story of the Olympic art competitions of the 20th century |date=2000 |publisher=Trafford |isbn=978-1-55212-606-6 |location=Victoria}}</ref> He is buried in [[Mount Jerome Cemetery]].

Yeats holds the distinction of being Ireland's first medallist at the [[Olympic Games]] in the wake of the creation of the [[Irish Free State]]. At the [[1924 Summer Olympics]] in Paris, Yeats' painting ''The Liffey Swim'' won a silver medal in the [[Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics|arts and culture segment]] of the Games.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jack Butler Yeats {{!}} Irish painter|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Butler-Yeats|access-date=2021-08-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> In the competition records the painting is simply entitled ''Swimming''.<ref>p.318, McCarthy, Kevin ''Gold Silver And Green: The Irish Olympic Journey 1896-1924'' Cork: Cork University Press 2010</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Richard |title=The forgotten Olympic art competitions: the story of the Olympic art competitions of the 20th century |date=2000 |publisher=Trafford |isbn=978-1-55212-606-6 |location=Victoria}}</ref><ref>Mike, Cronin. "The State on Display: The 1924 Tailteann Art Competition". ''New Hibernia Review''. Volume 9, Number 3, Autumn 2005. 50-71</ref>