Press Release

EL LISSITZKY: THE ARTIST AND THE STATE
With Rossella Biscotti, Maud Gonne, Núria Güell, Alice Milligan, Sarah Pierce & Hito Steyerl

30 July – 18 October

IMMA presents El Lissitzky: The Artist and the State, as we approach the centenary of Ireland’s Easter Rising and reflect on the vibrant artistic and cultural community who gave voice to a new image for the emerging state and a visual language for its’ politics. This exhibition places this local reflection within a broader global consideration of the role of artists in the imagination of emergent states of the early 20th century and a contemporary reflection on the task of the artist in relation to civil society.

The exhibition brings together a significant body of works from the Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven by the Russian avant garde artist El Lizzitsky (1890 – 1941), one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, who is shown here for the first time in Ireland. El Lizzitsky was an enthusiastic supporter of the Russian Revolution, for him the construction of the Soviet Union meant the opportunity to break away from traditional constraints. He used it to develop visions of a collective aesthetic of the new world, which he then embodied in his artworks.

These important El Lissitzky works, including a significant body of his noted ‘Proun’ series, are shown in the context of archive material referencing the work Irish nationalist poet and writer Alice Milligan (1865-1953), and her collaborator Maud Gonne (1866 – 1953). The exhibition explores their parallel visions of the activated artist central to the imagining of a new state. El Lissitzky and Milligan both envisaged their creative practices as tools for social and political change, although realising this through very different aesthetic languages and strategies. What becomes clear is the conviction and active participation in the task at hand: the artist as an active in the formation of the new world order.  

A contemporary counterpoint to the historical narrative is provided by the work of four artists – Rossella Biscotti, Núria Güell, Sarah Pierce and Hito Steyerl – whose work, in different ways, reflects on the position of the artist within our society now, challenging our position as individuals within the mechanics of the state and questioning the role of art in reflecting a cohesive experience of civil society.

El Lissitzky: The Artist and the State brings to Ireland for the first time an extraordinary body of El Lissitzky works generously lent to IMMA by the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, shown alongside archival material related to Alice Milligan and Maud Gonne’s theatrical tableaux, and newly commissioned and recent works by Rossella Biscotti (Italy 1978), Núria Güell (Spain 1981), Sarah Pierce (USA 1968) and Hito Steyerl (Germany 1966).

The exhibition is curated by Annie Fletcher, Chief Curator, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Sarah Glennie, Director, IMMA with Dr Catherine Morris as curatorial advisor.

The participation of the Dutch-based artist Rossella Biscotti is made possible with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund.

Supported by Yeats 2015

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy
E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920 or E: [email protected].

Notes for Editors

About El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky was an artist, designer, teacher, and theorist of the Russian avant-garde. Trained as an architect in Germany in the 1910s, in the years just after the 1917 Revolution, he turned to Abstraction, which he believed was the most effective tool for pursuing a new art for a new, post-revolutionary world. He made drawings, prints, and paintings of abstract geometric planes of colour floating against a neutral background, and incorporated a broad range of materials into them. He referred to these works by the word Proun, from the acronym for "project for the affirmation of the new" in Russian, and called them "interchange stations between painting and architecture." In his design work, typographical elements are the building blocks for abstract compositions, and language disassociated from its conventional literary context acquires new meaning. His books, pamphlets, and posters were made to be disseminated widely and used by the masses.

Gallery Discussion | El Lissitzky: The Artist and the State
Thursday 30 July, 11am – 12noon, Garden Galleries, IMMA
Exhibition Curators, Sarah Glennie, Annie Fletcher, and Catherine Morris (art historian and curator) lead a gallery discussion within the exhibition spaces.

Lecture + Roundtable Discussion
Saturday 17 October, 3 – 5:30pm, Lecture Room, IMMA
On the closing weekend of El Lissitzky: The Artist and the State, Catherine Morris presents a lecture on her research into the art historical and cultural contexts of Russia and Ireland, which links together the work and ideas of key revolutionary figures Alice Milligan, Maud Gonne, Jack B. Yeats and El Lissitzky in the early years of the 20th century. This will be followed by a discussion addressing Lissitzky’s enthusiasm for the revolution and the relevance of his ideas for contemporary artists and society, as Ireland approaches the centenary of 1916. Participants include: Rossella Biscotti, Núria Güell, Sarah Pierce, Annie Fletcher, Sarah Glennie and discussion moderator, Mick Wilson (Researcher, Valand Academy, the University of Gothenburg). A closing reception follows this event.

Booking is essential for talks. Free tickets available on www.imma.ie.

21 July 2015

New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, will showcase best emerging talent

Law firm Matheson and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) have confirmed a major three-year partnership supporting New Art. The relationship will see Matheson supporting approximately ten exhibitions per year at IMMA and the commitment will enable the commissioning of new work in 2015.

The first exhibition to be supported under this new partnership is a solo exhibition by Scottish sculptor and Turner Prize (2011) nominee Karla Black, whose exhibition featuring seven new site-specific sculptures runs at IMMA until 26 July 2015.

Upcoming Matheson-sponsored New Art at IMMA projects in 2015 include exhibitions by Lebanese artist Etel Adnan; British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews; Irish artist Grace Weir; and What We Call Love, an exhibition of Surrealist works, alongside key conceptual and contemporary pieces, exploring the 20th century notion of love at the heart of which will be a series of new commissions supported by Matheson by artists including Seamus Nolan, Lucy Andrews and Jim Shaw.

IMMA is committed to supporting remarkable emerging artists to make exciting new work through a dynamic series of commissions, projects and group exhibitions. New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, will allow IMMA to continue to support this vital work in a strand of programming that recognises and nurtures new talents, new thinking and new forms of exhibition-making.

Speaking at the announcement today, IMMA Director Sarah Glennie stated: “IMMA is one of Ireland’s leading cultural institutions and a key source of creativity and inspiration for visitors of all walks of life. One out of every eight IMMA visitors experiences visual art for the first time through their IMMA visit and it is hugely important to us to create an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art for everyone.

Above all else we are committed to supporting artists’ work. Artists tell us about ourselves, they challenge us; they create space for difference, debate and the imagination. New Art at IMMA, supported by Matheson, allows the Museum to continue to support the work of new and emerging artists. Together with innovative partners like Matheson we can work to support the development and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland.”

Liam Quirke, Managing Partner at Matheson welcomed the partnership with IMMA today stating: “Investing in talented lawyers and creating an environment which allows them to realise their potential are core values of our firm.  We are delighted therefore to partner with IMMA who share our values and hope that our support of New Art at IMMA will allow the Museum to expand its investment in and nurturing of new and emerging talent in modern art.”

 

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920 or E: [email protected]

Additional Information for Editors

About Matheson
Matheson is the law firm of choice for international companies and financial institutions doing business in and through Ireland. The firm’s clients include the majority of the Fortune 100 companies. It also advises 7 of the top 10 global technology brands and more than half of the world’s 50 largest banks. Matheson is headquartered in Dublin and also has offices in London, New York and Palo Alto. More than 600 people work across the firm’s four offices, including 75 partners and tax principals and over 400 legal and tax professionals.

About IMMA
IMMA (The Irish Museum of Modern Art) is Ireland’s national institution of contemporary and modern art. Based in its home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, IMMA is celebrated for its vibrant and dynamic exhibition and education programmes. IMMA is the home of the national collection of modern and contemporary art. Now numbering over 3,500 works, we ensure that this collection is accessible to visitors to IMMA and beyond, through exhibitions, collaborations, loans, touring partnerships and digital programmes.

New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson Programme

Karla Black
1 May – 26 July 2015
Karla Black is regarded as one of the pioneering contemporary artists of her generation. A Turner Prize nominee in 2011, she practices a kind of lyrical autonomous sculpture, influenced by psychoanalysis, feminism and its impact on visual art. Black’s work draws from a multiplicity of artistic traditions from expressionist painting, land art, performance, to formalism.  Black questions the rigors of sculptural form and her large-scale sculptures incorporate modest everyday substances, along with very traditional art-making materials to create abstract formations.

The site-specific exhibition at IMMA will present Karla Black’s extraordinary creative output, revealing the artist’s constant challenges to prevailing concepts of sculpture. Her interest in process has led her to expand the possibilities of whichever material she employs; from plaster, polythene, chalk dust and powder to eye-shadow, nail varnish, fake tan or toothpaste. Black chooses her media for their tactile aesthetic appeal: the familiarity of the texture of cellophane or the scent of cosmetics bridges the experience of tangible matter with the intimacy of memory of the subconscious. Black’s working process is intensely physical and this energy is conveyed through works that emphasise her free, experimental working method, combined with the editing, muting and reigning in of careful aesthetic judgment. Each element in her assemblages interconnects physical, psychological, and theoretical stimuli which are both self-referential and relate to art as a wider-world experience.

Etel Adnan
5 June – 13 September 2015
Now in her 90s, Adnan is an extraordinary creative voice and force of artistic renown. She moves freely between writing and art, poetry and tapestry and all aspects of her creative output will be reflected in the exhibition. A selection of Adnan’s enigmatic and colourful oil paintings will showcase her use of rapid, thick strokes representing the landscapes of California and the Mediterranean Sea. These works will appear alongside a series of delicate leperellos that fuse Adnan’s parallel practice as artist and writer. The exhibition will also include a black and white film, poetry and recordings of the artist reading from some of her most recently published poems and writings. Adnan was born in 1925 in Beirut and has been one of the leading voices in contemporary Arab American literature since the 1960s.

What We Call Love
12 September 2015 – 7 February 2016
Love in the 20th century, according to the poet Arthur Rimbaud, had to be reinvented. Nowadays, in a world full of crisis and conflicts, tensed between opposite ideals, and submitted to increased individualism and intense consumption, love is seriously threatened and regularly challenged. Paradoxically, love in the 21st century has never been so linked to individual identity and happiness.

What We Call Love explores how the notion of love has evolved within the 20th century. How have seismic sociological changes concerning sexuality, marriage and intimacy, alongside developments in gender issues, affected the way we conceive love today? How does visual art, from Surrealism to the present day, deal with love and what can these artistic representations tell us about what love means in our contemporary culture?
 
Drawing on contemporary sociology, neuroscience and of course art, What We Call Love sheds some light on these questions. While we cannot give a final definition of “what is love” we can examine how artists have represented it. Presented in three chapters, the exhibition draws on Surrealism’s idea of love as “amour fou” (crazy love), new visions of love that emerged after the ‘60s and the often problematic concerns of contemporary love.

Focusing mainly on the now, this important exhibition will present a succinct selection of carefully chosen Surrealist works, alongside key conceptual and contemporary pieces, integrating new commissions and other works in the forms of cinema and performance. Texts and interviews from three leaders in their respective fields; Georges Sebbag on Surrealism, Eva Illouz on sociology and Semir Zeki on neuroscience will contribute to this reflection.

Curated  by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at Centre Pompidou, with Rachael Thomas, Head of Exhibitions at IMMA, What We Call Love will include works from Cecily Brown, Miriam Cahn, Elmgreen and Dragset, Jim Hodges, Jeremy Shaw, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois , Meret Oppenheim, Annette Messager, Andy Warhol, Rebecca Horn, Marina Abramoviæ, Nan Goldin, Wolfgang Tillmans and others.  IMMA will also be commissioning new works for this exhibition, artists to be announced.

Presented with the support of the French Embassy in Ireland.

Chloe Dewe Mathews: Shot at Dawn
10 October 2015 – 7 February 2016
Shot at Dawn is a new body of work by the British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews that focuses on the sites at which British, French and Belgian troops were executed for cowardice and desertion between 1914 and 1918. The project comprises images of twenty-three locations at which the soldiers were shot or held in the period leading up to their execution. All are seasonally accurate and were taken as close as possible to the precise time of day at which the executions occurred.

Shot at Dawn premiered at Tate Modern in London and Stills: Scotland’s Centre for Photography in Edinburgh in November 2014. Following the showing at IMMA the exhibition will travel to Ivorypress in Madrid in 2016.

Chloe Dewe Mathews is one of Britain’s brightest young photographers. She has been awarded the BJP International Photography Award, Julia Margaret Cameron New Talent Award and the Flash Forward Emerging Photographer’s Award by the Magenta Foundation. Her work on the Caspian region was nominated for the Prix Pictet and shortlisted for the London Photography Award. Represented by Panos Pictures, Chloe was included in the Telegraph’s five most promising new artists of 2011 and the Observer’s new talent of 2012. Last year she was awarded the Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

Shot at Dawn is commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford as part of 14–18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions. Sponsored by Genesis Imaging and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund and by the British Council, Government of Flanders, John Fell OUP Research Fund and Van Houten Fund.

Grace Weir
7 November 2015 – 6 March 2016
IMMA presents an exhibition by one of Ireland’s most respected artists; Grace Weir. The exhibition will focus on a number of new works that will be supplemented by complementary existing works that span over 20 years of Weir’s creative output. She represented Ireland at the 49th International Venice Biennale and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and is currently Artist-in-Residence in the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin.

Working primarily in the moving image, Grace Weir makes a critical appraisal of film through film-making, in a practice that fuses documentation with highly authored situations. She is concerned with aligning a lived experience of the world with knowledge and theory. Weir probes the nature of a fixed identity and these questions are underpinned by the theories under her scrutiny, whether it is relativity, intentionality, film theory, the duality of light or the philosophy of time and history.

4 – 14 June 2015
 
Following the hugely successful first edition of the summer festival in 2014, IMMA announces programme details of SUMMER RISING in 2015 with a 10 day line-up of events for all ages from Thursday 4 to Sunday 14 June 2015.

Taking place throughout the galleries, gardens and grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, day and night, SUMMER RISING is a celebration of art, food, music and live performance. Opening on June 4 with summer exhibitions by Canadian artist Stan Douglas and Lebanese artist Etel Adnan, SUMMER RISING includes:
 
The IMMA SUMMER PARTY (Saturday 6 June, 8pm till late, tickets €15), an evening of food and cocktails, live outdoor performances, music and DJ sets as the sun goes down, including: In the Silence of the night, curated by Mary Cremin, live outdoor performances by Dorit Chrysler on theremin, interventions by artists Ruth Proctor and Lee Welch, spoken word performances by Ella De Burca, Sarah Jones and Dimitra Xidous; music curated by Peter Maybury (Thread Pulls) & Dennis McNulty includes Rainfear, Das DJ, Press Charges (Sunken Foal), Simon Conway and Ellll; and food & cocktails by Concrete Tiki (Michelle Darmody of The Cake Cafe and artist Fiona Hallinan) with offerings by Designgoat, Fish Shop and K Chido Mexico.

GARDEN RISING on Saturday 6 June and Sunday 14 June, (12noon to 5pm), a free daytime programme for all ages in IMMA’s stunning gardens, with food workshops, artist talks, performances and family-friendly activities, including:
A specially commissioned theatre performance by THEATREclub; artist Stan Douglas in conversation with curator Seamus Kealy; interactive art installations by Ed Devane, Joe Coveney and Slavek Kwi; family-friendly workshops where you can create your own Edible Gingerbread Canvas and Food Fanzines from family recipes with Cliodhna Prendergast of Breaking Eggs; forage in the IMMA meadow to make herbal tea mixtures with Freda Wolfe of Intelligent Tea and Wild Irish Foods; learn about fermenting and preserving foods with April Danaan; butchery workshop with Joe Rumburger; garden tours, critical talks and more.

For those who are peckish, Concrete Tiki (Michelle Darmody of Cake Café and artist Fiona Hallinan) have created pre-bookable lunch PICNIC BINDLES (€25) to enjoy at Garden Rising, featuring a selection of great Irish food, beautifully and thoughtfully presented with help from artists Tuomey, Williams & Watt and Arran Street East.

CONCRETE TIKI RAZING (Sunday 14 June, 6.30-10pm, tickets €20), A party in the gardens of IMMA, curated by Concrete Tiki (Michelle Darmody and Fiona Hallinan), to mark the end of the SUMMER RISING festival, including a welcoming cocktail by Domestic Godless and a South Indian feast by Madina followed by handmade nougat, wild tea, drinks and dancing the evening away around the tiki.

Other SUMMER RISING events include Happenings pop-up outdoor cinema in the IMMA meadow on 12 June, Mornings at the Museum family workshops on 10 and 11 June, Summer Camp for teens 9-11 June, and much much more.

Day-time events free. Tickets from €15.00 for food and night-time events.
Full programme and ticketing details at www.imma.ie.
 
For further information and images, please contact Patrice Molloy +353 (0)1 612  9920 [email protected] or [email protected]
 

5 June – 13 September 2015

IMMA presents the work of Lebanese artist, poet, and writer Etel Adnan in a solo exhibition of 30 works opening at IMMA on 5 June 2015. Now in her 90s, Etel Adnan is an extraordinary creative voice and force of artistic renown. She moves freely between writing and art, poetry and tapestry. Many of these creative strands are denoted in the works on display in this exhibition.

A selection of the artist’s enigmatic and diminutive oil paintings showcase her use of rapid, thick strokes and distinctive shapes, representing the landscapes of California and the Mediterranean Sea. These works appear alongside a series of delicate leporellos where the transcriptions of her poems are recorded on unfolding urban landscapes, fusing Adnan’s parallel practice as artist and writer.

One of the leading voices in contemporary Arab American literature since the 1960s, the Adnan exhibition includes a selection of her publications, from her iconic novel Sitt Marie-Rose (Éditions des femmes, 1978) to the Etel Adnan reader, To Look At The Sea Is To Become What One Is (Nightboat Books, 2014).

The exhibition also features two film works; Adnan’s Motion, 2012, a 90-minute silent unfurling of cityscapes, skies and sunsets, and The Otolith Group’s I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another, 2012, a work shot largely in the artist’s Paris apartment which centres on a reading of her poetry. Both films are meditative explorations of nature and our presence within it.

Etel Adnan is presented alongside SUMMER RISING: The IMMA Festival, a 10 day celebration of art, food, music and performance for all ages in the galleries, gardens and grounds of IMMA.

Running 4 June to 13 September 2015. Admission is free.

 NEW ART AT IMMA
 PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY MATHESON

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920 or E: [email protected]. 

NOTES FOR EDITORS
Talks and Events

Family Workshop
Saturday 6 June 2015, 12 – 1pm + 2 – 3pm, East Ground Galleries, IMMA
Sometimes We See Better With Our Eyes Closed                                                                                          
Clodagh Emoe (artist) leads an Etel Adnan inspired family workshop. This workshop explores how we encounter and engage with contemporary art. In response to the exhibition of paintings and leporellos by Etel Adnan, this workshop explores how artistic forms invite thought on an experiential, perceptive and imaginative level. This workshop is suitable for children (over the age of 7) and adults alike. Drop in.

Lunchtime Gallery Talk
Wednesday 1 July 2015, 1.15 – 2.00pm, East Ground Galleries, IMMA
Rachael Gilbourne (Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, IMMA) introduces the new exhibitions of works by renowned artist, poet and writer, Etel Adnan. A selection of Adnan’s colourful oil paintings and delicate leporellos are amongst the works to be explored.

Booking is essential for talks. Free tickets available on www.imma.ie.

About the Artist
Etel Adnan was born in 1925 in Beirut, Lebanon. Recent solo exhibitions include Etel Adnan in All Her Dimensions, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar, 2014; Words and Places: Etel Adnan, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA, 2013; and Etel Adnan, Works 1965 – 2012, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg, Germany, 2012. Adnan was a featured artist in the most recent Documenta XIII in Kassel, Germany, 2012. She has shown in many group exhibitions, such as Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2014; Rose, CEAAC Centre European D’Actions Artistiqes Contemporaines, Strasbourg, France, 2014; and Tajreed. A Selection of Arab Abstract Art. Part I 1908 – 1960, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait, 2013; The Last Grand Tour, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece, 2011; Tafsir, Martin Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin, 2009; 5 Artists – St Petersburg, L’Hermitage Museum, Russia, 2007; and British Museum, London, 2006.

Etel Adnan’s artworks feature in numerous collections, including Centre Pompidou, Paris, Mathaf, Doha, Qatar, Royal Jordanian Museum, Tunis Modern Art Museum, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, British Museum, London, World Bank Collection, Washington D.C., and National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C, as well as within many private collections. Also a tapestry designer, she has tapestries in public spaces and private collections. Slides of her tapestries are in the permanent files of the Contemporary Crafts Museums of New York and Los Angeles.

As a writer, Adnan is the author of Sitt Marie-Rose (The Post-Apollo Press, 1982), the celebrated novel on the Civil War in Lebanon that has been translated into ten languages. She has written more than 10 books of poetry, essays, and cultural writings. Among her recent works are Sea and Fog (Nightboat Books, 2011), Seasons (The Post-Apollo Press, 2008), and The Arab Apocalypse (The Post-Apollo Press, 2007). She is a recipient of a 2010 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award. Adnan studied at the Sorbonne in France, U.C. Berkeley, and Harvard. She taught Philosophy at Dominican College in San Rafael, California. She lives between Sausalito, California; Paris; and Beirut.

Additional Information for Editors
The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun) have emerged as one of the most distinctive voices in British contemporary art. Their work is research-based, cross-cultural and concerned with the history and future of moving image practice. They have exhibited at Tate Britain, Nottingham Contemporary, MACBA, Barcelona, the São Paolo Biennale, the Hayward Gallery and many other galleries internationally. In 2010, they were nominated for the Turner Prize. In addition to their artistic practice, The Otolith Group have co-curated exhibitions and publications on Harun Farocki, 2009 and Black Audio Film Collective, 2007. Eshun is also well known as a writer and music scholar, and is author of the influential book, More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction (Quartet Books, UK, 1999).

5 June – 20 September 2015

IMMA presents the work of Stan Douglas, one of the most interesting and important artists of our time. The exhibition, Mise en Scène includes over 40 works, with a special focus on the photographs Douglas has produced since 2008, providing a rich introduction to the artist’s practice.

Stan Douglas came to international prominence in the 1990s when his film installation Der Sandmann was one of the highlights of Documenta X in 1997. Born in 1960 in Vancouver, Canada, Douglas is known for his films, photographs and installations that use new and outdated technologies, the media of cinema, TV and photography, the conventions of various Hollywood genres (including film noir and the Western) and reference classic literary works (notably, Samuel Beckett, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust, and Franz Kafka), to examine intersections of history and memory in evocative, mesmerising artworks.

The exhibition presents critically-acclaimed photographic works ranging from his Crowds and Riots Series, 2008, to Mid Century Studio, 2010-2011, to some of his latest photographs, such as Hotel Vancouver, 2014. The exhibition also brings together the photograph series Malabar People, 2011, and Disco Angola, 2012, as well as the large-scale series of Interiors, 2009 – 2011. Douglas’ major film work Luanda – Kinshasa, 2013 is also presented, which dynamically portrays the documentation of a fictitious Miles Davis jazz recording set in the 1970s.

Over the past decade, Douglas’ work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide, including the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, 2013; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, 2012; The Power Plant, Toronto, 2011; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 2007; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2005; kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, 2004; and the Serpentine Gallery, London, 2002. He has participated in Documentas IX, X and XI, 1992, 1997, 2002 and three Venice Biennales (1990, 2001, 2005). He is the recipient of many awards, including most recently, the prestigious Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, New York, 2012, and the Scotiabank Photography Award, 2013.

The exhibition is curated by Seamus Kealy, Director, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria, and is part of an ongoing tour of Stan Douglas’ work, involving Carreì d’Art – Museìe d’Art Contemporain, Nîmes, France; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen; Wiels, Brussels; Berardo Museum, Lisbon (2013 – 2015).

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue.

Talks and Lectures

IFI + IMMA Presents Screenings and Discussion with Stan Douglas
Wednesday 3 June 2015, 6.00 – 8.00pm
Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Tickets €9 (IFI Members €8)
A screening of Film (26mins) by Samuel Beckett, and Vidéo (18 mins) by Canadian artist Stan Douglas, that pays homage to Beckett’s film.  A discussion follows between Stan Douglas and Walter Asmus (German Theatre/ Film Director and collaborator with Samuel Beckett), moderated by Seamus Kealy. This event is in collaboration between the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Irish Film Institute on the occasion of the exhibition Stan Douglas: Mise en Scène.
To book tickets visit www.ifi.ie

Artist Conversation with Stan Douglas
Saturday 6 June 2015, 2.00 – 3.00pm, Johnston Suite, IMMA
Stan Douglas and Seamus Kealy discuss the exhibition Mise en Scène at IMMA.                               
Booking essential. Free tickets available at www.imma.ie
Stan Douglas: Mise en Scène is presented alongside SUMMER RISING: The IMMA Festival, a 10 day celebration of art, food, music and performance for all ages in the galleries, gardens and grounds of IMMA.

Running 4 June to 20 September 2015. Admission is free.

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920 or E: [email protected]. 

New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, will showcase best emerging talent

Matheson and The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) have today announced a major three-year partnership supporting New Art. The relationship will see Matheson supporting approximately ten exhibitions per year at IMMA.

The first exhibition to be supported under this innovative new partnership is a solo exhibition by UK artist Karla Black, regarded as one of the pioneering contemporary artists of her generation. A Turner Prize nominee in 2011, Black’s work draws from a multiplicity of artistic traditions from expressionist painting, land art, performance, to formalism. Black questions the rigours of sculptural form and her large-scale sculptures incorporate modest everyday substances, along with very traditional art-making materials to create abstract formations.  For her upcoming exhibition, supported by Matheson, Black has created seven new site-specific sculptures, unique to the IMMA exhibition.

Other Matheson-sponsored New Art projects in 2015 include Etel Adnan, What We Call Love, Chloe Dewe Mathews and Grace Weir. The commitment will enable the commissioning of new work in 2015; a full list of artists will be announced in late May.

IMMA is committed to supporting remarkable emerging artists to make exciting new work through a dynamic series of commissions, projects and group exhibitions. IMMA curators work closely with some of the most exciting and internationally significant young artists working today, artists like Tino Sehgal, Duncan Campbell, Haroon Mirza and Isabel Nolan, to support new developments in their work. New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson will allow IMMA to continue to support this vital work in a strand of programming that recognises and nurtures new talents, new thinking and new forms of exhibition-making.

Speaking at the announcement today, IMMA Director Sarah Glennie stated: “IMMA is one of Ireland’s leading cultural institutions and a key source of creativity and inspiration for visitors of all walks of life. One out of every eight IMMA visitors experiences visual art for the first time through their IMMA visit and it is hugely important to us to create an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art for everyone.

Above all else we are committed to supporting artists’ work. Artists tell us about ourselves, they challenge us; they create space for difference, debate and the imagination. New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, allows the Museum to continue to support the work of new and emerging artists. Together with innovative partners like Matheson we can work to support the development and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland.”

Liam Quirke, Managing Partner at Matheson welcomed the partnership with IMMA today stating: “Investing in talented lawyers and creating an environment which allows them to realise their potential are core values of our firm.  We are delighted therefore to partner with IMMA who share our values and hope that our support of New Art at IMMA will allow the Museum to expand its investment in and nurturing of new and emerging talent in modern art.”

Karla Black is at IMMA until 26th July 2015. Admission is free of charge. Please visit www.imma.ie for more details.

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy [email protected] +353 (0)1 612 9920 or [email protected]

Additional Information for Editors

About Matheson
Matheson is the law firm of choice for international companies and financial institutions doing business in and through Ireland. The firm’s clients include the majority of the Fortune 100 companies. It also advises 7 of the top 10 global technology brands and more than half of the world’s 50 largest banks. Matheson is headquartered in Dublin and also has offices in London, New York and Palo Alto. More than 600 people work across the firm’s four offices, including 75 partners and tax principals and over 400 legal and tax professionals.

About IMMA
IMMA (The Irish Museum of Modern Art) is Ireland’s national institution of contemporary and modern art. Based in its home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, IMMA is celebrated for its vibrant and dynamic exhibition and education programmes. IMMA is the home of the national collection of modern and contemporary art. Now numbering over 3,500 works, we ensure that this collection is accessible to visitors to IMMA and beyond, through exhibitions, collaborations, loans, touring partnerships and digital programmes.

1 May – 26 July 2015

A pioneer of Conceptual Art and author of the renowned Inside the White Cube, Brian O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland has made a major new Rope Drawing, which is been exhibited for the first time at IMMA this summer. A recent gift to IMMA by the artist, it is entitled The doors to good and evil and the windows to heaven – Christina’s World, Rope Drawing #124, (2015). An immersive installation, the work features vibrant blocks of colour and white cords which, when viewed from a particular point, snap into extraordinary sight appearing to leave the gallery wall. The point of convergence of the two main ropes (lines) on the floor is an oblique reference to the location of the sitter in Christina’s World, (1948), one of the most adored and maligned American paintings of the 20th century by Andrew Wyeth, about whom O’Doherty wrote in American Masters.

O’Doherty’s enduring obsession with themes of language, perception and identity are further represented in the exhibition by a selection of his works from the IMMA Collection dating from 1954, before he moved to New York, to the present day. These include In the Wake (Of) (1963-1964), a small sculptural work that engages with Joyce’s labyrinthine novel, Finnegans Wake, in many ways fronting up to the author. An approach O’Doherty takes again using a quotation from Jonathan Swift in A Modest Proposal, (1980), a political work that playfully remaps Ireland.

A number of other Collection works by Irish artists are also receiving their first IMMA showing as part of Fragments, including a wall-based sculpture by Aleana Egan The sky looks down on almost as many things as the ceiling, (2013) and commissioned works by Praneet Soi, Ronan McCrea and Alan Phelan. McCrea’s Medium (Corporate Entities) is a photographic enquiry into spaces where corporate art collections are hung. Originally developed as part of a 2008 exhibition at IMMA titled 10,000 to 50, it is fascinating to reflect on the changing corporate and economic landscape in the intervening seven years. The artist has re-edited the work to create a new version for this exhibition. For this new version McCrea has added the sound of footsteps, with a voice reading a script that he has devised by using a cut-up technique on the original catalogue essays for the 2008 show. The projected images in this version dissolve slowly into each other, creating a complex, dreamlike experience.

Alan Phelan’s work Include Me Out of the partisan manifesto, (2012) (Note to editors: Please note the unusual typesetting of the title with partisan and manifesto in lower case) was the starting point for a wider curatorial collaboration with the artist. As part of IMMA’s new strategies for showing the collection, Phelan worked with IMMA’s curator to place works within the exhibition, interrogating relationships and confronting selection choices.

Alan Phelan worked most specifically on an element of the exhibition that interrogates the concept of the White Cube. Phelan was invited to engage with a pre-selected set of works, primarily drawn from the Gordon Lambert Trust. Working with IMMA Collection curators this section considers the role of the collector, their personal eye, and the nature of the domestic setting in which the work is initially displayed. A Bird of Paradise flower is placed next to a wall work by Deborah Brown, highlighting the flash of orange within the work in the same way that Gordon Lambert displayed it in his home. Domestic scaled sculptures by Brian King, Frank Morris and Michael Warren further connect with Gerda Frömel’s practice, Warren having cited Frömel as the only Irish artist of any real significance working in Ireland at the time, and the selection reflects the domestic scale of her early work.

There are many other references within this rich exhibition that relates to the overall IMMA programme. A focus on sculpture in its various forms is connected to Gerda Frömel’s retrospective in the Garden Galleries and a new exhibition by contemporary UK sculptor Karla Black, also opening today. Several styles of drawing are threaded through the exhibition, echoing both Frömel and visiting Portuguese artist Diogo Pimentão. Following a short residency at IMMA Pimentão has developed new work, currently being exhibited in the Garden Galleries. Diogo’s practice informed the programming of Resonance; a remarkable suite of five paintings by Shirazeh Houshiary, which are inspired by quotes from the Sufi poet Rumi. This further connects to a recent donation by Outset Nederlands of the work Srinagar by Amsterdam-based Indian artist Praneet Soi. The work on show comprises a slide projection and 44 remarkable handmade papier-mâché tiles, made in collaboration with craftsmen in Srinagar, Kashmir. The intricate drawings and selection of colours on the tiles were made by Soi and derive from his photographs and research into the disappearing Sufi culture of Srinagar.

Numbering over eighty works, this large exhibition filling the East Wing, Fragments continues to include GILBERT & GEORGE’s large-scale photowork Smoke Rising, (1989), Nigel Rolfe’s Dance Slap for Africa, (1983) and other works with an emphasis on performance including a film by Phil Collins and historic works by Marina Abramović.

Fragments also includes a number of Subjectivist works by WW II imigrès, the White Stag artists, bequeathed by the late artist Patrick Scott to IMMA in 2014. Scott exhibited with the White Stag from 1941 and the group swopped each other’s paintings. The donation is particularly rich in key works by Kenneth Hall who was a close friend of Scott.

Saluted by Scott in his painting Hats off to Camille, (1976), (IMMA Collection, not on show), the career of Camille Souter, now in her 85th year, is celebrated with a room of her works from the IMMA Collection.  The selection presents some of her finest paintings from the 1950s and 60s and point to her interest in Joan Miró, Paul Klee, Jackson Pollock and European Tachiste Art.

Fragments, borrows its title from philosopher Walter Benjamin who notably compared the work of translation to that of re-assembling fragments of a broken vase – the individual fragments must come together, but need not be like each other. An allegory that is somewhat ideal for exhibition making and collecting.

Admission is Free. Exhibition continues until 26 July 2015.

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy +353 (0)1 612  9920 [email protected] or [email protected]. 

Additional Information for Editors
List of Artists
Marina Abramović; Jean (Hans) Arp; Deborah Brown; John Burke; Lynn Chadwick; Eduardo Chillida; Phil Collins; Edward Delaney; Aleana Egan; Tom Fitzgerald; GILBERT & GEORGE; Kenneth Hall; Hilary Heron; Shirazeh Houshiary; Caoimhe Kilfeather; Brian King; Ronan McCrea; James McKenna; F.E. McWilliam; Frank Morris; Leopoldo Novoa; Eilis O’Connell; Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland; Betty Parsons; Alan Phelan; Pablo Picasso; Kathy Prendergast; Nigel Rolfe; Praneet Soi; Camille Souter; Telegeneak (aka Thomas Sivuraq); Michael Warren; Alexandra Wejchert.

10 April – 5 July 2015

The first contemporary retrospective of the work of Gerda Frömel opens at IMMA, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, on Thursday 9 April 2015. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1931 to a family of German descent, Frömel moved to Ireland in 1956 and lived here for the remainder of her life. An incredibly well-regarded artist in her lifetime, she exhibited to universal critical acclaim; however following her untimely death in 1975 her work was neglected and rarely seen. This exhibition of some one hundred sculptures, drawings, photographs and archive material brings her work back into critical consideration and reinstates Frömel as a master of Modern Irish Art.

Following her art education in Germany in the 1950s Frömel moved permanently to Ireland in 1955 with her new husband the sculptor Werner Schürmann whom she had met at Art School in Munich.  On their arrival in Ireland Schürmann established one of the only foundries in the country, and began to cast their works in bronze.

Frömel participated in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art annually from 1956, aligning herself with the most innovative and vital artists in Ireland at the time. Brian Fallon, in The Irish Times of 1969 commented; “The small sculpture section on the whole is high in quality. Gerda Frömel is outstanding.”Initially working in small scale these early works were cast in bronze and figurative in style. Even in this early stage of her career Frömel received significant commissions from Bord Fáilte (1960) and the Arts Council (1962), and an award from Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (1962).

Throughout the 1960s Frömel created works with real-life observations of life and nature. Her preference was for an uneven surface and works that appear highly finished from a distance, on closer inspection reveal deliberate machining marks and chips. In the late 1960s Frömel made a transition from cast bronze sculptures to works carved in marble, granite, and her favourite material – alabaster. She made use of simple forms: circles, lines and spirals to communicate her observations from nature, natural phenomena and the celestial, in particular, the moon and its reflection were denoted with the simplest of visual codes.

By the late 1960s Frömel was working in a much larger scale and in 1967 she commenced Sails, her most important commission to date, and the most ambitious public sculpture of its time in Ireland. Made for Carroll’s Factory in Dundalk, Co Louth (now Dundalk Institute of Technology), a building designed by Scott Tallon Walker along lines set down by the architect Mies van der Rohe. The original idea was to commission a major sculpture from Henry Moore or Alexander Calder but the client insisted that an Irish artist be commissioned.  Frömel met with Ronald Tallon and proposed a mobile depicting sails for the site. The final stainless steel sculpture comprises three elements which resemble aircraft wings and proved Frömel’s capacity to work on a monumental scale. It became emblematic of the building and can still be seen today.

In August 1975 the life of this extraordinary woman and talented artist was cut short when she died in a drowning accident.  Among the artistic community the news of her untimely death at the age of 44 was greeted with shock. At the Irish Exhibition of Living Art that year a special display was made of her work and the catalogue included a tribute to her. A year later a substantial retrospective of Frömel’s work was held at the Municipal Gallery, but her work has rarely been seen since, despite being championed by writers like Dorothy Walker.

Fortunately Frömel’s work remains in key Irish National and Corporate Collections, while IMMA has the most substantial holding of Frömel’s work in a public collection, thanks in large part to works donated by the Carroll’s and Bank of Ireland Collections. IMMA has included the artist in landmark exhibitions such as The Moderns (2010-2011) ensuring that her work continues to be considered within the canon of Irish and international Modernism.

The works in this retrospective exhibition at IMMA date from 1955 to 1975 and are grouped around partial reconstructions of her solo exhibitions, as well as thematic presentations of concerns in her work such as the body, portraits, architecture and abstraction.

Gerda Frömel, A retrospective continues until 5 July 2015, Admission is free.

Additional Information for Editors
About the Artist
While Frömel enjoyed an uneventful childhood in the former Czechoslovakia, her early experiences were marked by the trauma of the Second World War and the German Expulsions in its immediate aftermath. (2015 is the 70th anniversary of these expulsions). These experiences place her within a group of German artists – Joseph Beuys, Frank Auerbach, Eva Hesse and Georg Baselitz – whose work emerged from this post-war environment. In a country trying to come to terms with its recent past, physically, economically and spiritually, in some areas art saw a ‘return to order’. Various artists who had worked in an abstract style before the war, notably Henry Moore for instance, returned to a period of figuration as a means to process their need to reassert the primacy of the human body after years of witnessing its destruction. This political and cultural background marked Frömel’s development as she entered art school in the years immediately after the war. Frömel enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart in 1948 and later went on to study in Darmstadt and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where she studied metalwork and sculpture.

While at art school in Munich, Frömel met the young sculptor Werner Schürmann. They married in 1955 and the couple moved permanently to Ireland the following year where they lived in Woodtown Park, outside Rathfarnham where Schürmann established one of the only foundries in Ireland and began to cast their works in bronze there.

Early works exhibited in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art were cast in bronze and figurative in style and included a portrait of her child entitled Portrait of Johann Jacob Weneslaus (1957) as well as images of animals such as Deer Crossing Bay (1963).

In 1964 she embarked on her biggest project to date: a solo exhibition at the Dawson Gallery in Dublin. The works shown have clear connections to the Post-war aesthetics of phenomenological works in the style of Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) with real-life observations of life and nature. Unusually within these early works, Frömel’s preference is for an uneven surface, and investment (plaster remnants left over from the casting process) can be seen, lending a somewhat unfinished appearance to the sculptures. This variation in surface is characteristic of Frömel’s work in other materials such as metal and stone; works that appear highly finished from a distance, on closer inspection reveal deliberate machining marks and chips.

In the late 1960s Frömel made a transition from cast bronze sculptures to works carved in marble, granite, and her favourite material – alabaster. She made use of simple forms: circles, lines and spirals to communicate her observations from nature, natural phenomena and the celestial, in particular, the moon and its reflection were denoted with the simplest of visual codes.

Between 1967-70 Frömel commenced her most important commission Sails, made for the Carroll’s Factory in Dundalk, Co Louth, designed by Scott Tallon Walker. The successful completion of the sculpture attracted significant positive attention in the press and it became emblematic of the building. At that point it was the largest private sculptural commission in Ireland, and one that would stand up to international comparison.

After her death in 1975 her work continued to be championed by writers like Dorothy Walker, and was included in Rosc 1980 but was exhibited only rarely.  Her work remains in the collections of The Arts Council, The Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank, ACC Bank, The Crawford Art Gallery, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology [GMIT], Limerick City Gallery, Trinity College Dublin and others. IMMA has has the most substantial holding of Frömel’s work in a public collection largely due to acquisitions from the Carroll’s Collection as well as the Bank of Ireland. They have been included in landmark exhibitions such as The Moderns (2010-2011).

The exhibition at IMMA is curated by Seán Kissane. In August 2015 the exhibition will travel to the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studios, Co. Down in August 2015 where it is curated by Riann Coulter.

Associated Talks and Events
There are a series of free talks to accompany this exhibition, with more to be announced.

Gerda Frömel – Her life and works 1955–1975  / Preview Lecture – Seán Kissane /
Thurs 9 Apr 2015 / 5.30–6.15pm  / Exhibition Curator Seán Kissane (IMMA) presents a lecture on his research for the first contemporary retrospective exhibition of works of Gerda Frömel and addresses how this exhibition reinstates Frömel as a master of Modern Irish art.

IMMA Modern Master Series – Symposium Gerda Frömel – Reconstructing an Artist’s
Career / Fri 17 Apr 2015 / 11am–3pm / Join scholars, writers and enthusiasts on Frömel’s work as they critically assess key developments of the artist’s short yet prolific career. Speakers will consider what Frömel’s story can teach us about the broader history, records and practice of sculpture in Ireland. Chaired by Paula Murphy (Senior Lecturer, School of Art History, UCD), other participants to be announced.

Closing Conversation – Frances Morris Post-War Art and Existentialism /
Sun 5 Jul / 3–4pm /  To mark the final day of the Frömel exhibition at IMMA, renowned art historian and curator Frances Morris (Head of Collections, Tate Modern, UK) reflects on her extensive research on post war art and examines how this time of vast turmoil and vigorous creativity continues to influence artistic practice of the last decades. In conversation with Seán Kissane (IMMA).

Catalogue
A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA; Riann Coulter, Curator, F.E McWilliam Gallery and Studio; Sarah Kelleher, CACSSS Postgraduate Scholar, University College Cork; and Jason Ellis, Sculptor and conservator.

For further information, and images, please contact Patrice Molloy [email protected] +353 (0)1 612  9920 or [email protected]. 

IMMA, The Irish Museum of Modern Art is pleased to announce highlights from our 2015 exhibition programme.

Sarah Glennie, Director of IMMA, said: “We are delighted to present another dynamic programme for Ireland in 2015, where a key highlight is sure to be the autumn exhibition What We Call Love, curated by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at Centre Pompidou with Rachel Thomas, Head of Exhibitions at IMMA. It will include works from Cecily Brown, Miriam Cahn, Elmgreen and Dragset, Jim Hodges, Jeremy Shaw and Wolfgang Tillmans among others and we are delighted to be working with the Pompidou again after our successful collaboration in 2013 with the Eileen Grey exhibition.”
 
“Over the course of the year we will mount the first major Irish exhibitions from internationally renowned artists Stan Douglas and Karla Black, as well as an exhibition of the work of poet, artist and writer Etel Adnan; one of the leading voices in contemporary Arab American literature since the 1960s. As part of our commitment to supporting new artists we present Chloe Dewe Mathews, a remarkable new artistic voice working in the medium of photography and Diogo Pimentão in their first Irish exhibitions, as well as a number of new commissions forming part of What We Call Love.”

“I’m delighted to be presenting a major exhibition by Grace Weir, one of Ireland’s most distinctive and important contemporary artists, and continuing our scholarly appraisal of Modern Irish Art with our forthcoming retrospective of the work of Gerda Frömel (1931 – 1975).”

IMMA Collection
There are several exhibitions throughout the year that draw from the IMMA Collection. In the spring we present Fragments, with works from Aleanna Egan, Ronan McCrea, Alan Phelan, Camille Souter, GILBERT & GEORGE, Nigel Rolfe, Marina Abramovic, Brian O’Doherty and Kenneth Hall. This will be followed in November with artist Nick Miller’s response to the Edward McGuire studio, part of the IMMA Collection, in Meetings: Into the Studio of Edward McGuire. A concurrent exhibition, Approaches to Paper, will explore the practice of celebrated Irish Modernists such as Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett to contemporary artists such as Antony Gormley, Andrew Folan and Kiki Smith.

FESTIVAL
Our new festival Summer Rising, which was such a success last year, will return in June with more art, music, performance and food events designed to open up the beautiful buildings and grounds of IMMA, day and night.

As in 2014 our exhibition programme will be accompanied by a rich and varied programme of events, talks, and learning programmes which will provide audiences of all ages exciting opportunities to enjoy the our programme.

IMMA Exhibition Highlights 2015
For additional information on each exhibition please click the hyperlink to reach the exhibition page.

Gerda Frömel
9 April–5 July
This exhibition will be the first contemporary retrospective of Gerda Frömel, an artist who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1931 as the daughter of German parents but who moved to Ireland in 1956. An incredibly well regarded artist during her lifetime, her work is no longer well known and has not been on exhibition since a 1976 retrospective at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin the year after her untimely death. This exhibition seeks to bring new work to light and to reinstate Frömel as a modern Irish master.

Diogo Pimentão
9 April–5 July
This will be the first Irish solo exhibition of Portuguese artist Diogo Pimentão. Timed to coincide with Gerda Frömel, Diogo’s practice seeks to open the horizon of the drawing and its conventions to other dimensions, other processes and other tools.

Fragments
24 April–26 July
This exhibition borrows its title from Philosopher Walter Benjamin’s comparison of the work of translation to re-assembling fragments of a broken vase – the individual fragments must come together, but need not be like each other. This could also be taken as an allegory for exhibition making, or collecting.

Karla Black
1 May–26 July
Karla Black is regarded as one of the pioneering contemporary artists of her generation. Experimenting with ways to float material, form and colour at eye level remains a constant preoccupation in Black’s work. This preoccupation will form a key thread in the exhibition at IMMA, which will present Black’s extraordinary creative output through a series of new works tailored for the spaces here, revealing the artist’s free, experimental way of working combined with a careful aesthetic judgement.

Stan Douglas
6 June–20 September
We are delighted to present this major exhibition presented in collaboration with Kunsthaus Munich and Musée d’Art Contemporain de Nîmes. The exhibition focuses on Douglas’s recent photography, including the critically acclaimed series, Malabar People, Mid Century Studio and Disco Angola. The exhibition will include his major new film work Luanda Kinshasa.

Etel Adnan
6 June–13 September
Poet, artist and writer Etel Adnan was born in 1925 in Beirut and currently lives between California and Paris. Adnan studied literature at the Sorbonne, Paris, and philosophy at U.C Berkeley and Harvard. In 1984, she worked with Robert Wilson on his opera CIVILwarS and has exhibited internationally. Her recent publications include Master of the Eclipse (2009), Seasons (2008), In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country (2005), and In/somnia (2002).

What We Call Love
12 September 2015–2016
What We Call Love asks what does love mean in a society based more and more on individualism and consumption? How has the concept of love in the twentieth century evolved over time, and in what sense does it permeate art, from Surrealism to now? How does art represent love and what does it tell us about what love means in our contemporary culture?

Chloe Dewe Mathews: Shot at Dawn
10 October 2015–2016
Shot at Dawn is a new body of work by the British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews that focuses on the sites at which British, French and Belgian troops were executed for cowardice and desertion between 1914 and 1918. The project comprises images of twenty-three locations at which the soldiers were shot or held in the period leading up to their execution. All are seasonally accurate and were taken as close as possible to the precise time of day at which the executions occurred.

Grace Weir : 3 Different Nights, recurring
6 November 2015–6 March 2016
IMMA presents an exhibition by one of Ireland’s most respected artists; Grace Weir. The exhibition will focus on a number of new works that will be supplemented by complementary existing works that span over 20 years of Weir’s creative output. She represented Ireland at the 49th International Venice Biennale and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and is currently Artist-in-Residence in the School Of Physics, Trinity College Dublin.

Meetings: Into the Studio of Edward McGuire
12 November 2015–27 March 2016
Artist Nick Miller responds to the Edward McGuire Studio, part of the IMMA Collection, in an exhibition entitled Meetings: Into the Studio of Edward McGuire

Approaches to Paper
12 November 2015–27 March 2016
This IMMA Collection exhibition, Approaches to Paper, explores the practice of celebrated Irish Modernists such as Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett to exemplary contemporary artists such as Antony Gormley, Andrew Folan and Kiki Smith.

Admission is free to all 2015 exhibitions with the exception of What we Call Love.

Please note that opening dates are subject to change. Please refer to the exhbition pages for the most current information. For further information and images please contact Aoife Flynn or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; email: [email protected]

The Irish Museum of Modern Art’s first summer festival, SUMMER RISING, proved to be a great success with 7000 people attending over ten days of events. The festival celebrated the exhibition Propositions by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica and included day and night time art, music, performance and food events. Taking place in IMMA’s galleries, stunning formal gardens and historic North Wing, opening up these spaces to new audiences.

Day time events included two full days of free activities and a programme of family events that ran throughout the week. Highlights included story and picture time with Panti; an electro-pop céilí with dance duo Up and Over It; a series of musical pop up performances; day-long art workshops with Mobile Art School; and the Concrete Tiki, a pop up café with hourly food sittings by The Hare and The Cake Café.

All night time events sold out in advance which included the popular THISISPOPBABY performance, art and club extravaganza WERK; the IMMA Summer Party with a specially commissioned edition of Gracelands that transformed IMMA’s formal gardens with artists’ performances and screenings; and the IMMA Banquet a unique feast in IMMA’s Chapel, curated by The Cake Café, who brought together chef Jess Murphy and artist Mark Garry to create a stunning visual and sensory experience.

Visitors responses to the festival via Twitter were extremely positive. The following are some examples and more can be read at https://tagboard.com/SummerRising 

– Gorgeous afternoon @IMMAIreland #summerrising #lovedublin kids paradise #edibleart
– Great night, beautiful surroundings, great company + food #summerrising
– Congrats to our pals @IMMAIreland on #SummerRising – one of our highlights so far this year!
– Excellent night at the #imma #dublin #summerrising
– Loved the noisy kids with leaf blower machines covering everyone in dust @IMMAIreland #SummerRising
– Such a beautiful night-stuff of dreams start to finish. Well done all involved! #Imma #SummerRising
– Such a cool random night @IMMAIreland #SummerRising last night. Definitely putting it on the list for next year.

SUMMER RISING was made possible by the OPW Per Cent for Art Scheme.

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected] 

30 July 2014