This Is Your Gallery

Monday August 18, 2003 12:21

by Jerry Cornelius

National Gallery of Ireland

Go along to the National Gallery, these shows are free, it for you, for everyone, not just the cognoscenti.The NGI organises of lectures and tours and provides support for the schools’ curricula and introducing adults to the history of art. A Teacher’s Resource Pack is published by its Education Department. Art for the People!
(Full details below)

National Gallery of Ireland
Exhibition Programme, Autumn -Winter 2003

Title: Before and After- The IIB Sculpture Conservation Project

Dates: 28 August 2003 - 18 January 2004

Venue: National Gallery of Ireland, Milltown Wing

Admission: Free

Content: In 2001, the National Gallery of Ireland carried out a major
sculpture conservation project over a period of two years, which was
supported by IIB Bank. It involved the surveying and conservation of key
pieces in the Gallery's collection, among them a number of works by Irish
sculptors such as the terracotta bust of the 18th century traveller, Sir
Watkin Williams-Wynne (1749-1789) by Christopher Hewetson (1739-1798), the
elegant white Carrara marble carving of 'A girl reading' by Thomas MacDowall
(1799-1870), the Connemara marble composition of trout swimming upstream by
Albert Power (1881-1945) and death masks of important literary, political
and artistic figures. The results of these endeavours are presented in a
special display in the Gallery, with information panels illustrating work
before and after conservation.
NGI Curator: Dr. Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch

Re-Opening: National Portrait Collection -Irish Life through the Ages-

Dates: from 10 September 2003

Venue: National Gallery of Ireland, Dargan Wing

Admission: Free

Content: In 1884, the National Portrait Collection was established
under the then Director, Henry Doyle (1869-92). It included some 50
paintings together with works on paper, principally mezzotint portraits of
distinguished individuals, an area of the collection which was to be
significantly enhanced in 1887 and 1888 when the Gallery acquired a body of
work at the two Chaloner Smith sales in London. The National Portrait
Gallery continued to be a feature of the permanent display up until the
1970s, when it was dismantled. In the interim the collection has been
enhanced by a series of acquisitions and special commissions of portraits of
well-known personalities from contemporary Irish life, a project which was
facilitated through the generous support of Irish Life and Permanent plc.
From 10 September visitors will have an opportunity to explore the new
display of the National Portrait Collection which is devoted to over 70
national portraits, painted and sculpted from the 16th century to the
present day. The display includes the splendid 18th century portraits of
Lord Edward and Lady Pamela Fitzgerald, and that of Constance Markievicz
painted in 1899 by her future husband. Other more familiar faces on view,
will be the portrait of Lady Lavery used for the design of the first Irish
bank notes, the cruciform shaped portrait of Noel Browne by Robert Ballagh,
and the colourful representation of sportsman, Ronnie Delaney by Dublin
artist, James Hanley. The latest commissioned portrait of U2 frontman,
Bono, by one of Ireland's most admired artists, Louis le Brocquy, will also
be on display.
NGI Curator: Dr. Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch

Title: "Heavenly Bodies-Figure Drawing through the Ages"

Dates: 16 September - 14 December 2003

Venue: National Gallery of Ireland, Print Gallery

Admission: Free.
This exhibition will focus on the art of
figure drawing from the 16th century to the present day with many of the
works drawn from the Gallery's permanent collection. Artists include Andrea
Mantegna, Jacopo Bassano, Ludovico Carracci, Gabriel Metsu, Jean Antoine
Watteau, Anton Raphael Mengs, William Mulready, Edgar Degas, Alberto
Modigliani, Rose Barton, William Orpen, Mainie Jellett, and Pablo Picasso.
A brochure will accompany the exhibition.
NGI Curator: Anne Hodge

Title: "Love Letters: Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Vermeer"

Date: 1 October - 31 December 2003

Venue: National Gallery of Ireland, Millennium Wing

Content: This exhibition will examine the interest among Dutch
painters in depicting scenes involving letters, their writing, dictation,
delivery and reception. The subject appeared at a time of an explosion of
epistolary activity in Europe, when not only the use of letters as a form of
communication became more fashionable but also the very nature of private
written correspondence changed. The exhibition, which includes works by
Vermeer, ter Borch, de Hooch, Jan Steen, and Metsu, will discuss its social,
cultural and historical context, and discuss some of the devices that
artists employed to comment on the letter theme and the content of the
letters depicted. The accompanying catalogue is written by Peter C. Sutton,
with contributions by Jennifer Kilian and Ann Adams, all widely published
authorities on Northern Baroque painting.
Curator: Peter C. Sutton, Director, Bruce Museum, Connecticut
Other Venues: Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, (31 January - 2 May
2004)

Further Information: Valerie Keogh
Press & Communications Office
National Gallery of Ireland
Tel. + 353 1 661 5133 Email: press@ngi.ie

Visitors entrance: National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square
West, Dublin 2 & Clare Street, Dublin 2.
Opening Hours: Mon.-Sat. 9.30am to 5.30pm;Thu. to 8.30pm; Sunday
12.00pm to 5.30pm

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Comments (6 of 6)

...leave aerosols and stencil stuff at the door.

by i

Mon Aug 18, 2003 13:58

...who knows maybe posterity will judge your craft well and you'll get into Dargle's hut some day...

Wheres Her Majesty?

by Sir Peter Hadden - HMSP

Mon Aug 18, 2003 14:49

Why doesnt the gallery have a portrait of Her Majesty, Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

Cool

by Clare - ..

Tue Aug 19, 2003 17:42

Thanks. Keeping posting this sort of info please!

A total aside: Also wondering, if most things can be considered art - what defines art exactly....I thought maybe everything that isn't nature?

Glad To Be of Service ;)

Tue Aug 19, 2003 17:58

Scraping the Surfacens

An exhibition of drawings and sculpture by the Belfast-born artist John Kindness, from the Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection, opens to the public on Monday 1 September 2003 at Tallaght Community Arts Centre, as part of a collaborative project between Tallaght Community Arts Centre and IMMA’s National Programme.
The title of the exhibition, Scraping the surface…, is taken from one of the works included in the show. This work was part of a series which Kindness worked on while he was based in New York using ‘treasures’ which he found in the city. Inspired by his interest in the detritus of human life, Kindness has taken a familiar New York taxi cab door, which he found lying abandoned in the street. The familiar yellow paint of the door is scraped away and the scratched metal is then darkened with a metal oxide resulting in a black image on a yellow background - deliberately reminiscent of classical Greek attic vases.
Kindness is interested in exploring what it is we are leaving behind us, and this work, with its archaeology reference, suggests that the debris in the gutter will be the artefacts of the future. The subject of the work is a classical figure who crouches down to the gutter to clean up after his pair of aristocratic looking dogs but he ignores the other discarded items such as a hypodermic needle, a used condom, a disposable coffee cup and plastic fork.
Also shown in this exhibition are Dog with Altarpiece and A Monkey Parade, both of which make humourous references to the culture of both communities in Northern Ireland. A Monkey Parade shows a monkey riding a white horse, symbolic of the white horse historically associated with King William of Orange. The monkey, however, is seated back to front on the horse and is blindfolded. Dog with Altarpiece portrays a bulldog with a leather studded collar imitating the attire of a Catholic priest while another dog is shown crucified on a cross in the background. The image of the dog is used again in the sculpture Big School Dog. The dog strikes a menacing pose with penetrating red glass eyes while its coat takes on the role of a school blackboard with school lessons written onto its surface in chalk, harking back to Kindness’s school days in Belfast.
. . .
Throughout his career, Kindness has used traditional methods of working such as mosaic and fresco painting and enjoys the idea of exploring contemporary themes in traditional media. He has always wanted to engage rather than alienate his viewer and consciously creates art which has both an appealing aesthetic, to draw the viewer in, and a strong narrative to engage the viewer further. Another tool he uses to engage the viewer is the wit and ironic humour ever present in his work, even when dealing with such emotive issues as the political situation in Northern Ireland.
The National Programme is designed to create access opportunities to the visual arts in a variety of situations and locations in Ireland. Using the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and exhibitions generated by the Museum, the National Programme facilitates the creation of exhibitions and other projects for display in a range of locations around the country. The National Programme establishes the Museum as inclusive, accessible and national, de-centralising the Collection, and making it available to communities in their own localities, on their own terms, in venues with which the audience is comfortable and familiar.
A series of workshops and gallery talks will be held alongside the exhibition as part of the Branching Out project. Branching Out is a programme designed by the Irish Museum of Modern Art and National Irish Bank to bring the visual arts to the community and provide opportunities for the community to get involved.
Scraping the Surface… continues until 10 October 2003 at the Tallaght Community Arts Centre, Unit 1, Village Square, Tallaght, Co Dublin.
For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane at Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Fax: +353 1 612 9999,
Email: press@modernart.ie
19 August 2003

Um, there's not a lot to see in our National Gallery

by Seáinín

Wed Aug 20, 2003 02:00

But it's worth a visit and it's free so "art for the people" is where we already are.

I disagree that almost anything can be art, it's a sign of our decadent times that M Saatchi pays vast sums for an unmade bed or a skullcast in frozen blood (which melted, he he!. The production of art should be a discipline rather than an indulgence, should require unusual effort to produce and should evoke feelings rather than bemusement.

...

by simon

Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:37

I agree in part with the distaste for Saatchi's ability to create art with his cheque book but some of the technical profeciencies we regarded as art are a bit redundant, arent they. In the way how portraiture in the traditional sense faded with the onset of photography 'new' art should be exploring new avenues of expression. For me art should be able to envoke something either more instantaneous or something deeper. now I dindt study art so am i allowed to have an opinion on it?

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Comments (6 of 6)