Breon O'Casey

Breon O’Casey (1928-2011) was an artist and sculptor who immersed himself fully in the vibrant arts scene in St Ives in the middle of the 20 th Century. He was as dedicated to his craft as to his adopted home of Cornwall.

Arriving in St Ives in the late 1950s, Breon O’Casey found himself amongst some of the foremost – and formative – artists of the day, including Terry Frost, William Scott and of course Barbara Hepworth, with whom he worked as her assistant. O’Casey’s work moved into an abstract style inspired by the immediate things around him in his windowless studio – he described himself as far more of a still-life artist than anything else.

For his works on canvas and paper, as well as beautiful sculpture and jewellery, simplicity of shape and dimension are comfortingly familiar; as he said himself, ‘there is nothing new under the sun, but an infinity of arrangements’.