Her first solo show was at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1972. The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester held a retrospective (which toured) in 1977. In the 1960s and 1970s, her work was largely conceptual with her
Irish ancestry contributing to the subject of many works depicting the political situation in
Northern Ireland. Rita Donagh's work on the H Block prisons in Northern Ireland was shown with her husband Richard Hamilton, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1984.[3] Hamilton's influence of
collage and
oil paint showed up in her works of the 1970s.
Later, she focused on the human figure including such work as Slade of 1994. She continued her interest in politics with works such as Downing Street Declaration (1993) which included a Hamilton-esque, televised image of Prime Minister
John Major.
In 1994 she had a solo exhibition at Cornerhouse, Manchester and the preview on 13th October coincided with the Loyalist's in Northern Ireland calling a ceasefire.
Donagh, who was widowed in 2011, lives and works in
Oxfordshire.
Her work is in the permanent collection of the
Tate Gallery.[1]
1977 - Rita Donagh Paintings and Drawings, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, Touring to Central Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, Belfast; Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1973 - I I English Artists, Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden and
Kunsthalle, Bremen
1974 - British Painting, Hayward Gallery, London
1975 - 7th International Festival of Painting, Cagnes sur Mer, France, and Contemporary British Drawings, 13th Biennale, São Paulo, and Body and Soul,
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1976 - Arte Inglese Oggi, Palazzo Reale, Milan
1978 - Hayward Annual '78, Hayward Gallery, London, and Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, and Art for Society, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1979 - European Dialogue, Sydney Biennale
1980 - The Newcastle Connection, Newcastle upon Tyne
1983 - The Granada Connection, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester