Charity given €100k painting

A hospital charity fundraising to refurbish one of the country’s largest children’s wards has received a major shot in the arm.

A €100,000 painting by a renowned Irish-American artist has been donated to help the Cork University Hospital (CUH) Charity’s latest fundraising drive.

Charity spokesperson Maeve O’Neill said they were “stunned and delighted” by the donation from the estate of Chicago-born painter Matt Lamb.

“This is such an amazing lift for the children’s unit,” she said.

“We are trying to raise just over €1.5m to refurbish CUH’s paediatric ward and this will go a long way towards helping us reach that target.”

Lamb’s 1998 72in by 60in oil-on-canvas Working Together which features two spiritual figures — a re-occurring theme in Lamb’s body of work — will be displayed as part of exhibition and sale of art, hosted by The Warren Gallery in association with the CUH Charity, at CUH’s cardiac renal unit from 9am to 8pm next Monday and Tuesday.

The exhibition, which includes work by William Crozier, Aidan Bradley, Joby Hickey, Yvonne Moore and Colin Flack, will be opened by Irish rugby legend and Irish Examiner columnist Donal Lenihan.

But Ms O’Neill said they plan to raffle Lamb’s painting over the coming months, with tickets from €10.

Matt Lamb, who was born in Chicago in 1932, ran the city’s largest family-run funeral home franchise.

But after a brush with death in his early 50s, he revaluated his priorities, sold his businesses and dedicated the rest of his life to art.

With several homes in West Cork and studios around the world, he became a tireless activist for world peace and used his art career to advance his own personal mantra of “peace, tolerance, understanding, hope, and love”.

In 2001, in the wake of the Sep 11 terrorist attacks, he created The Lamb Umbrellas for Peace project.

He brought 38 children who had lost their parents in the attack to Washington DC for a three-day art workshop where they expressed their feelings in colourful ways on the umbrellas which were subsequently shown on Capitol Hill.

That project has now become a global art movement.

Lamb received treatment in CUH before his death in Feb 2012. His daughter Sheila now manages his estate.

Fergus O’Mahony, of The Warren Gallery, said he approached Sheila and said they needed a “big painting” for the fundraiser.

“She said ‘no problem’. It was as simple as that,” he said. “Matt Lamb was incredibly generous, and donated between €3m and €4m worth of art to Irish hospitals.

“He donated his Four Seasons series worth €1m to Temple St.

“A lot of his work hangs in CUH and the maternity hospital. That was the kind of man he was.”

Mr O’Mahony also has a deeply personal connection to the children’s unit in CUH.

His son Cian who was born with cerebral palsy in 1998, was cared for in CUH before his death in 2008.

“We are just repaying the kindness that was shown to us in CUH,” he said.