Novels
- The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P. (1992)
- The Deposition of Father McGreevy (1999)
Non fiction
- American Masters (1982)
- Inside the White Cube (1985)
- John Wesley (2001)
- Collected Essays (2018)
Novels Book Covers
Non fiction Book Covers
Brian O’Doherty Books Overview
The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P.
In this mysterious and haunting novel of eighteenth century Vienna, Brian O’Doherty takes the reader from the hushed clinic of the controversial physician Dr Franz Mesmer to the glittering and scheming Habsburg court of Maria Theresa of Austria.
The Deposition of Father McGreevy
In a London pub in the 1950s, editor William Maginn is intrigued by a reference to the reputedly shameful demise of a remote mountain village in Kerry, Ireland, where he was born. Maginn returns to Kerry and uncovers an astonishing tale: both the account of the destruction of a place and a way of life which once preserved Ireland’s ancient traditions, and the tragedy of an increasingly isolated village where the women mysteriously die leaving the priest, Father McGreevy, to cope with insoluble problems. Looking back in time, the book traces how, as World War II rages through Europe, McGreevy struggles to preserve what remains of his parish, and struggles against the rough mountain elements, the grief and superstitions of his people, and the growing distrust in the town below. The Deposition of Father McGreevy is a remarkable story, and a gripping exploration of both the locus of misfortune and the nature of evil. Rich in the details of Irish lore and life, its narrative evokes both a time and a place with the accuracy of a keen, unsentimental eye, and renders its characters with heartfelt depth.
Inside the White Cube
When these essays first appeared in Artforum in 1976, their impact was immediate. They were discussed, annotated, cited, collected, and translatedthe three issues of Artforum in which they appeared have become nearly impossible to obtain. Having Brian O’Doherty’s provocative essays available again is a signal event for the art world. This edition also includes ‘The Gallery as Gesture,’ a critically important piece published ten years after the others. O’Doherty was the first to explicitly confront a particular crisis in postwar art as he sought to examine the assumptions on which the modern commercial and museum gallery was based. Concerned with the complex and sophisticated relationship between economics, social context, and aesthetics as represented in the contested space of the art gallery, he raises the question of how artists must construe their work in relation to the gallery space and system. These essays are essential reading for anyone interested in the history and issues of postwar art in Europe and the United States. Teeming with ideas, relentless in their pursuit of contradiction and paradox, they exhibit both the understanding of the artist Patrick Ireland and the precision of the scholar.
John Wesley
Accompanying a retrospective at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, this new monograph documents the work of painter John Wesley, covering his entire career from 1961 until today. Wesley is known for his consistency of palette baby blues and cotton pinks his use of painted ‘frames’ within his pictures, his early emblem paintings, his cartoon Bumstead works and ultimately for his representations of an inner erotic voyage where the viewer is both voyager and voyeur. Initially considered in alignment with pop artists of the early 60s, Wesley consistently produced works of such a subtle and subversive nature as to put him in a category of his own. He used the early tools of advertising production like tracing paper and stock photography and was the subject of a wide range of influences, from Surrealism to Art Nouveau, from ancient Greek poetry to Matisse. The result is an oeuvre that has challenged and rewarded viewers for forty years.
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