Nicola Gordon Bowe

Nicola Gordon Bowe (1948-2018) was an art historian, author and educator. She was a leading authority on the Arts and Crafts movement in Ireland, most notably the revival of stained-glass as an art form. She was also known for her extensive research and publications on stained glass artists Harry Clarke and Wilhelmina Geddes.

Bowe was an Associate Fellow at the Faculty of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design in Dublin; Visiting Professor, School of Art and Design Research Institute at the University of Ulster; and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wales.

Bowe's book on Geddes was shortlisted for Book of the Year Apollo Awards in 2016.

Career

Stained-glass created by Harry Clarke

Stained-glass created by Wilhelmina Geddes.

"Harry Clarke was the subject of Bowe's doctoral thesis in 1982. Her first book on Clarke was published in 1983. Her investigation into Clarke's life and work was the beginning of a long career of extensive research into the Arts and Crafts movement in Ireland.

" Nikki Gordon Bowe, a long-time contributor to the Irish Arts Review whose seminal publication on the Life & Work of Harry Clarke, first published by Irish Academic Press in 1989, re-established the reputation of this exceptional Irish artist of the early 20th century".

Bowe's extensive research over thirty years has rescued this gifted Irish stain glass artist from relative obscurity.

"whose work was most likely to be discovered in various rural churches."

"n that over the course of three decades she laboured on a book about the Irish stained glass artist Wilhelmina Geddes who, like Harry Clarke, had been admired in life but largely forgotten in death. The result was a substantial volume which appeared in 2015 and was widely and deservedly praised:

where she lectured in design history and eventually became the founding director of a master's course in the history of design and the applied arts.

Death

Bowe died unexpectedly January 5, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland after a short illness.

Selected publications

• Nicola Gordon Bowe: Wilhelmina Geddes: Life and Work. Four Courts Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-84682-532-3, S. 506. 

• Nicola Gordon Bowe: Harry Clarke: The Life & Work. The History Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-84588-742-1, S. 384. 

• Nicola Gordon Bowe: The Arts and Crafts Movements in Dublin and Edinburgh. Irish Academic Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7165-2579-0, S. 232. 

• Nicola Gordon Bowe: Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass : The Works of Harry Clarke and the Artists of An Tur Gloine, (The Tower of Glass) 1903-1963. Irish Academic Press, 1988, ISBN 978-0-7165-2413-7, S. 120. 

• Nicola Gordon Bowe: Harry Clarke: His Graphic Art. H. Keith Burns Publishers, 1983, ISBN 978-0-943842-01-1, S. 160.