A dynamic exhibition, by a new generation of 40 young European artists, examining the idea of cultural capital, what it means to be European, and ideas at the core of the financial heart of Europe, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s temporary off-site exhibition spaces in Earlsfort Terrace on Friday 19 April 2013. I knOw yoU takes a fresh look at contemporary art in Europe as a reflection of the exchange and openness that exists between artists working today. The exhibition represents the exciting diversity of approach in current contemporary art practice. I knOw yoU is curated by artist, Tobias Rehberger; Nikolaus Hirsch, Director of Städelschule and Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator, Head of Exhibitions, IMMA.

I knOw yoU focuses on the central points of Europe and harnesses its context to address European notions and questions of power and that of economic dominance within the banking industry as a prominent debate in contemporary society. The exhibition seeks to further expand this debate by examining concepts of symbolic and cultural capital alongside the role of art and creative innovation, its particular questions on the production of meaning and value. The current discourse of capital in Europe is overwhelmingly dominated by the discourse of economic power and structure. The particular symbol for this, especially within the media, is the Euro and the European Central Bank, located in Frankfurt. I knOw yoU aims at an alternative model of capital that explores a new set of relations between knowing and owing.

The artists in I knOw yoU have been selected from graduates of the Städelschule academy in Frankfurt am Main, and reflect the ambitious undertaking made by the school in its development as a leading centre for experimental art practice. The exhibition has an open curatorial approach that allows each artist to nominate another practitioner of their choosing. Uniquely, this can be from any discipline they connect with (ie. a poet, philosopher, musician, scientist, chef, gardener, artist etc.), either on a collaborative or stand-alone basis, thereby extending the connection point for each artists work. The invitation to this core group of artists to nominate another practitioner encompasses the school and the city as a prism through which international debate can be explored. Artists in the exhibition include Simon Denny, Simon Fujiwara, Jeppe Hein, Jay & Q, Sergej Jensen, Maria Loboda, Michaela Meise, Tris Vonna-Michell, Nora Schultz, Danh Vo Haegue Yang and Thomas Zipp.

Full list of contributors:
Harold Ancart
Ei Arakawa
Michael Beutler
Michael Callies
Pattara Chanruechachai
Simon Denny
Daniel Dewar
Elstir
Vincenzo Estremo
Jana Euler
Simon Fujiwara
Timothy Furey
Tue Greenfort
Jeppe Hein
Aurel Iselstöger
Jay & Q
Sergej Jensen
Maria Loboda
Denise Mawila
Michaela Meise
Tris Vonna-Michell
Simon Dybbroe Møller
Stefan Müller
Henrik Olesen
Pennacchio Argentato
Kirsten Pieroth
Att Poomtangon
Pratchaya Phinthong
Queen Victoria
Maria von Hausswolff
Mark von Schlegell
Claus Rasmussen
Michael Riedel
Tomás Saraceno
Bernhard Schreiner
Nora Schultz
Sean Snyder
Marcus Steinweg
Woody Tasch
The World
Alexander Tovborg
Jelena Trivic
Torben Ulrich
Danh Vo 
Jeronimo Voss
Holger Wüst
Haegue Yang
Thomas Zipp

I knOw yoU | Talks and Events Programme
IMMA will present a range of talks and events in the context of the I knOw yoU exhibition which further explore the themes of the exhibition; our relationship to the EU, knowing and the role of knowledge in contemporary society and the contemporary artists’ relationship to our national and European identity.

Round Table Discussion with Curators | I knOw yoU
Thursday 18 April, 5.30 – 6.15pm, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
Exhibition Curators Tobias Rehberger, Nikolaus Hirsch, and Rachael Thomas, will discuss the curatorial and conceptual framework for I knOw yoU.

Seminar |The Art Academy and Knowing
Friday 19 April, 1.00 – 4.30pm, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
A seminar to explore the role of the art academy and its relationship to knowing from a range of perspectives, including philosophy, psychoanalysis and art theory and practice. This features a keynote presentation by Nikolaus Hirsch. Other speakers include Mick Wilson (Head of Valand Academy, Sweden), Francis Halsall (Lecturer, Co-ordinator MA Art in the Contemporary World, NCAD), Sinead Hogan, Lecturer, IADT; Cathy Haynes, curator and co-founder, The School of Life, London; Ian Miller, psychologist and psychoanalyst; and others.

Lunchtime Talks | Lesson from the Art School
Friday 7/ 14 June, 1.15pm, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
Artists’ reflections on what they know from their experience in art school.

The Arts and the Public Intellectual in a time of crisis
Thursday 4/ 11/18 July, 5.30pm, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
A series of talks and discussions about the role of the arts and the public intellectual in a time of social, economic and political crisis. This features a keynote presentation by Mary Corcoran (Professor of Sociology, NUI Maynooth (and co-editor of Reflections on Crisis: The Role of the Public Intellectual, 2012).

Panel Discussion | Artist as Emigrant or Nomad?
Friday 10 May, 4.00pm, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
A round table discussion exploring the experience of emigration from the perspectives of Irish artists living abroad. This discussion leads into VISIT 2013 (12/13 May), a weekend of artists’ open studios across Dublin. For further details see www.visitstudios.com

10 x 10 | Talk Marathon
What does it mean to be Irish in Europe Today?
Friday 18 May, 5.30 – 8.00pm, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
Ten cultural practitioners/brokers/thinkers are invited to present 10 minute manifestos on their views on what it means to be Irish in Europe today.

WHAT IS_?  PROGRAMME
What is Participatory and Collaborative Art?
Saturday 27 April, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH
Talk 12.00 – 1.00pm | Presenter Brian Hand (artist and lecturer, Carlow IT) discusses the theory and practice of  collaborative art in the context of exhibitions Tino Sehgal: This Situation, 2007 and I KnOw YoU. This is followed by a panel discussion.
Panel Discussion 2.00-3.00pm | Panelists include Chairperson Patrick Fox (Director of Create, Ireland), Tim Stott (Lecturer in Art History and Theory, DIT), Culturstruction (artists, Tara Kennedy and Jo Anne Butler) and others.

What is _? Marxism and Critical Theory?  MA Art in the Contemporary World (NCAD) and IMMA
A new series focusing on theoretical perspectives, What is Theory? is being developed in collaboration with MA Art in the Contemporary World (NCAD). The talk will be followed by a screening of Intelligence Squared’s debate Karl Marx was Right and a panel discussion to consider the renewed interest in Marxist theory and its manifestations and relevance for contemporary art theory and practice.
 
Saturday 25 May, Lecture Room, IMMA @ NCH                                         
Talk 11:30am – 12:30pm | Presenters: Declan Long and Francis Halsall, ACW, NCAD
Screening 1.00 – 2.30pm | Karl Marx was Right – debate from Intelligence Squared
Panel Discussion 2:30 – 4.00pm

Booking is essential for all talks. For free tickets and a full programme of talks and events visit www.imma.ie/talksandlectures

Publication
An innovative artist led publication, published by onestar press, Paris accompanies the exhibition.

I knOw yoU is part of the programme of visual arts events celebrating Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union and has received dedicated financial support from the Department for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Dublin and is supported by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, The French Embassy, The Embassy of the Republic of Poland, The Embassy of Denmark, The Embassy of Belgium and The British Embassy.

I knOw yoU continues until 1 September 2013.

Admission is free.

Opening hours:
Tuesday: 10.00am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Thursday: 10.00am – 7.00pm
Friday and Saturday: 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Monday: Closed

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

3 April 2013

 

A pioneering work by the British-German artist Tino Sehgal made up entirely of live encounters between people opens to the public on the second floor of the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s temporary exhibition space in Earlsfort Terrace on Friday 12 April 2013. This Situation offers Irish gallery-goers the first opportunity to experience Sehgal’s approach to art, in which he responds to and engages with gallery visitors through the use of conversation, sound and movement. His recent project in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall was described by The Observer’s art critic, Laura Cumming as a potentially life-changing experience for visitors, enabling people to learn about other people and themselves, and by The Guardian’s Adrian Searle as the defining art work of the year. This Situation has toured globally with the support of the Goethe-Institut and is a unique unmissable experience.

In this most recent version of This Situation at IMMA, the gallery is occupied by a group of six ‘participants’ or ‘interpreters’ whose choreographed actions  generate a discussion of cultural, economic and philosophical issues. As with previous manifestations of This Situation, the work comprises of both local and international ‘participants’ who have been carefully selected by the artist.

Sehgal studied both political economics and choreography, working in dance before focusing on his ‘constructed situations’. Revealed only as experiences in the time and space they occupy, his works exist for those who encounter them and in their memories, but not as physical objects. Sehgal’s practice explores social processes, cultural conventions and the allocation of roles, reconsidering fundamental values of our social system while questioning definitions of materiality, authenticity and ownership. Sehgal does not photograph or record his work perhaps suggesting that the memories of the participants and the visitors engaging with the work are given the responsibility for remembering and interpreting the experience.

Tino Sehgal was born in London in 1976 and currently lives and works in Berlin. He represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and was nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize 2006 and the Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst 2007. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Villa Reale, Milan; ICA, London; as well as showing in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and Documenta 13 Art Festival, Kassel, Germany in 2012.

This Situation is curated by Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA, and co-curated by Georgie Thompson, Assistant Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA and produced by Louise Hojer.

Presented with the support of the National Concert Hall.

Supported by the Goethe-Institut Irland. 
 
This Situation continues until 19 May 2013. Admission is free.

Opening Hours: Tuesday: 10am – 5.30pm, Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm, Thursday: 10am – 7pm, Friday and Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm, Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm, Monday: Closed.

For further information please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Email: [email protected]

19 March 2013

474: mise-en-scène, an exhibition resulting from a collaborative project between the Institute of Art, Design and Technology and IMMA’s National Programme, opens to the public at the Drawing Project Gallery, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin on Friday 8 March 2013. The official opening of the exhibition takes place on Thursday 7 March at 6.00pm at the Drawing Project Gallery.

As a component of their seminar studies module at IADT, graduating students of the BA (Hons.) in Visual Arts Practice co-curated this exhibition of works from the IMMA Collection in response to the theme ‘mise-en-scène’. The project focused on the behind the scenes work of the Museum Collections Department exploring the various aspects of caring for a Collection, including conservation, storage, technical and installation considerations.  474: mise-en-scène consisted of an extensive programme of talks and workshops with IMMA Curatorial, Mediator and Technical staff. 

Artists included in the exhibition are Stephen Antonakos, Robert Ballagh, Christo, Michael Craig-Martin, Marcel Duchamp, David Godbold, John Kindness, Sol LeWitt, Paula Rego, Richard Wilson and Paul Winstanley. Through their curation and installation decisions, the students investigated how bringing these works together might create a critical conversation on the selection, staging and behind-the-scenes aspects of creating an exhibition.

A selection of student’s own work is also being shown as part of the exhibition.

474: mise-en-scène continues until 13 March 2013. Admission is free.
 
Opening hours:
Monday –Saturday: 11.00am – 8.00pm
Sunday: 12noon – 6.00pm
The Drawing Project is located in DunLaoghaire town centre; it can be reached easily by public transport and is located directly across the road from both DunLaoghaire DART station and the 46a Bus terminal. See http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Drawing-Project

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

26 February 2013

An exhibition exploring the diversity of contemporary Irish art practice through the work of 20 artists opens to the public at BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on Thursday 28 February 2013 as a key event in the culture programme on the occasion of Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union supported by Culture Ireland. The exhibition also presents archive material, photographs, and unfinished paintings from Francis Bacon’s Studio.

Changing States: Contemporary Irish Art & Francis Bacon’s Studio draws on the impressive collections of Ireland’s two leading institutions for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. This ambitious exhibition brings together the work of 20 contemporary Irish artists who have made significant contributions to art practice since 2000 and a fascinating exhibition of materials and unfinished paintings from the studio of Francis Bacon, one of the most important artists of our time.
Changing States presents works ranging across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video-art and new media. Featured artists include Orla Barry, Gerard Byrne, Nina Canell, Dorothy Cross, Willie Doherty, Fergus Feehily, John Gerrard, Patrick Graham, Katie Holten, Brian Maguire, Alice Maher, Martin & Hobbs, Niamh McCann, William McKeown, Richard Mosse, Gavin Murphy, Alan Phelan, Garrett Phelan, Eva Rothschild and Paul Seawright.

The exhibition also presents Francis Bacon’s Studio, offering a fascinating insight into the creative process and working methods of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. Francis Bacon’s Studio was faithfully relocated to the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and opened to the public in 2001.

Contemporary Irish Art

Changing States serves to underscore the vitality and diversity of visual art in Ireland today. From multiple viewpoints, they examine the forces beneath the layered complexities of their political, social, economic and cultural territories, demonstrating a capacity to converse creatively with the present, responding to the distinct forces at work in their cultures. In an increasingly globalised society, their art questions ideology and tests alternatives, by addressing selfhood and collectivity.

The contemporary exhibition features expressive paintings by Brian Maguire and the large-scale colour photographs of Richard Mosse and Paul Seawright that share concerns with geopolitics and the experience of conflict. Works variously informed by social and political questioning, countercultural histories, the deconstruction of media and art history images include sculpture by Eva Rothschild and installations by Alan Phelan and Garrett Phelan for whom political and ecological activism is central.

The poetic and transformative possibilities existing in everyday life is invoked by artists Dorothy Cross, Nina Canell, Alice Maher, Niamh McCann, William McKeown, Katie Holten, Fergus Feehily and others. The exhibition features a number of film-based works by artists such as Willie Doherty who explores the complexities of place, identity and memory and John Gerrard who creates hyper-real studies of environments with unnerving banality. How images are constructed, transmitted and mediated is examined in Gerard Byrne’s large-scale film and photography installations.

Despite the diverse nature of the 20 artists’ work, reflecting a great variety of concerns, ideas and media, they have in common an attempt to construct compelling aesthetic universes, to convey their own intensity of experience and perception of the world.

On the night of the exhibition launch, Wednesday 27 February 2013 at 6.00pm, artist Orla Barry, winner of the BOZAR prize in the Young Belgian Painters Award in 2003, will present her live performance Mountain in the BOZAR galleries. This performance was premiered in October 2012 at the Playground Festival at STUK(Leuven) and continues to London and Amsterdam. Following the performance the set will be reconfigured as a sound installation for the exhibition featuring elements from the set combined with a specially designed sound work.

Francis Bacon Studio

Born in Dublin of English parents, Francis Bacon left Ireland in 1925, at the age of 16. Although he lived and worked in London, Francis Bacon’s early life in Ireland informed his sensibility and psyche which contributed to his waging war on the figure, resulting in an extraordinary new visual language. It embodies a fearless introspection into the nature of existence, a despair of the world countered by a ‘desperate optimism’.

In 1998 Francis Bacon’s studio in London, where he worked and lived until his death in 1992, was presented by John Edwards to Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane where it was painstakingly relocated along with the 7,500 studio items and opened to the public four years later. The relocation of the studio by the Hugh Lane is recognized as a ground-breaking initiative in conservation, archival and curatorial practice. Photographs by Perry Ogden of Bacon’s studio and living spaces provide the last view of the studio before the Hugh Lane team removed it to Dublin.

The studio provides a unique portrait of Francis Bacon, his thought processes and working methods. Studio items such as the manipulation of photographs including those of John Deakin, Peter Stark and Peter Beard; reproductions of Muybridge’s pioneering studies of the human figure and animals in motion; images torn from books, magazines and newspapers of skin diseases, war atrocities, boxers, wildlife, art, lovers and friends all of which are of intense interest and relevance in the field of contemporary art practice. The archival systems and methodologies created by the Hugh Lane for Bacon’s archive prompt questions as to management of meaning and the role of the archive as a means of inquiry in contemporary art.

Changing States is supported by Culture Ireland as part of the International Culture Programme to celebrate Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2013.

A fully-illustrated catalogue, with essays by Barbara Dawson, Director, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Margarita Cappock, Head of Collections, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Luke Gibbons, Professor of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies, National University of Ireland, Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemusuem, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Annie Fletcher, Curator, Van Abbemusuem, Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, Irish Museum of Modern Art, accompanies the exhibition. Price €24.50.

Changing States is curated by Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and Christina Kennedy (Contemporary Irish Art) and Barbara Dawson and Margarita Cappock (Francis Bacon Studio).

Changing States continues until 19 May 2013.

Visitor Information:

Address:
BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts
Rue Ravensteinstraat 23
1000 Brussels

Dates:
28 February – 19 May 2013

Opening hours:
Tuesdays – Sundays: 10.00am – 6.00pm
Thursday: 10.00am – 9.00pm

Tickets:
€ 6.00: Changing States
€ 18.00: Changing States + Antoine Watteau + Neo Rauch

BOZAR Information and tickets:
Tel: +32 2 507 82 00
Email: [email protected]
Web:  www.bozar.be

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

6 February 2013

An exhibition exploring the early decades of Cubism and featuring the work of such celebrated Cubist artists as Albert Gleizes, Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett, opens to the public in the New Galleries at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin, on Wednesday 20 February 2013. Analysing Cubism focuses especially on the Continental milieu in which Hone, Jellett and other Irish artists worked in the 1920s and ‘30s, learning from and contributing to the development of European Modernism. The exhibition will be opened by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, TD, at 6.30pm on Tuesday 19 February. The exhibition is a partnership between the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, and IMMA and includes major loans from the National Gallery of Ireland, and is presented within the context of the Sharing Services initiative being promoted by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The exhibition is a collaboration with the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, Banbridge, Co Down. The exhibition is part of the programme of visual arts events celebrating Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union and is supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the French Embassy in Ireland and The Irish Times.

Analysing Cubism takes its title from the early years of the movement, sometimes referred to as ‘Analytical Cubism’. However, the exhibition extends its scope to the end of the Second World War, a watershed in modern art when the focus shifted from Paris to New York. It  looks at the work of a number of pioneering Irish artists who travelled to France and further afield to study modern art. The exhibition seeks to place these artists in context, examining the influence of their teachers, as well as exploring the work of some of the leading international exponents of Cubism.
The exhibition focuses on the Irish artists May Guinness, Jack Hanlon, Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Norah McGuinness and Mary Swanzy, and on their English counterparts Paul Egestorff and Elizabeth Rivers. It also includes work by European painters such as Georges Braque, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Henri Hayden, André Lhote and Pablo Picasso. The largest concentration of work in the exhibition is by Gleizes, Hone, Lhote and Jellett – in recognition of the extensive influence that these artists had on modern Irish abstract painting.

The influence of André Lhote is evident through his many pupils; these included May Guinness, Jack Hanlon, Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Norah McGuinness and Elizabeth Rivers. These artists travelled to Paris, seeking to discover abstraction and new forms of expression, each artist interpreting these influences in their own unique style. Mainie Jellett, was perhaps the most influential of her generation, through her own painting, her founding of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and her work as a teacher, promoting Modernism in a country firmly committed to the academic tradition of the Royal Hibernian Academy. Evie Hone was Jellett’s dearest friend and intellectual partner, and the two travelled extensively in each other’s company. Mary Swanzy, like Jellett and Hone was first trained in Paris, but also travelled to Italy and later to Samoa in the South Seas – following in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin, where the colours and forms of the tropics dominated her practice.

Analysing Cubism was first proposed by Peter Murray, Director of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, commenting on the exhibition he said: “Analysing Cubism provides an opportunity to revisit a period in the first half of the twentieth century when Irish artists studied and worked on the Continent, learning, but also contributing to the development of European Modernism. The exhibition is significant on many levels. Not only does it make a contribution to the growing appreciation of the Modern Movement in 20th century Irish art, it also raises questions relevant to today’s art world, regarding the relationship of centre and periphery, and of the sometimes under acknowledged contribution made by young creative talents to the development of the art of their time.”

The exhibition has been planned and developed within the context of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht’s Shared Services initiative, an innovation that will bring the Crawford Art Gallery Cork, the National Gallery of Ireland and IMMA into closer co-operation in the coming years. The exhibition is curated by Seán Kissane, Curator of Exhibitions at IMMA and Dr Riann Coulter, art historian and Curator of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio. Anne Boddaert at the Crawford Art Gallery and Seán Kissane have organised the exhibition and are co-editors of the exhibition catalogue.

The exhibition will travel to the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, from 20 June to 1 September and to the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, Banbridge, Co Down, from 13 September to 30 November. 

A fully-illustrated catalogue, published by IMMA, accompanies the exhibition, with texts by Peter Brooke, painter and author of Albert Gleizes, For and Against the Twentieth Century, published by Yale University Press; Dr Riann Coulter, art historian and Curator of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio; Dickon Hall, author of books on Nevill Johnson and Colin Middleton; Dr Roisin Kennedy, lecture Art History Department, University College Dublin; and curator of the exhibition Seán Kissane. The catalogue is available to purchase from the IMMA bookshop or online at www.theimmashop.com Price €20.00.

As part of the talks and lectures programme IMMA will host a seminar, Analysing Cubism – From Past to Present, to coincide with the exhibition preview and launch on Tuesday 19 February at 2.30pm to 6.30pm in the North Range of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. This seminar investigates early forms of European Cubism, outlining the various directions taken by Irish artists Mainie Jellet, Evie Hone and Mary Swanzy. This seminar intends to revisit the life, work and legacy of these artists, examine their creative relationship to Paris and Ireland, and explore the significant role these artists played in the history and development of Irish Modernism both nationally and abroad.

Critics, writers, artists, curators and art historians are invited to offer a range of views on the subject. Speakers include, Peter Brooke, Julian Campbell (author and art historian), Dr Riann Coulter, Dickon Hall, Dr Roisin Kennedy, Seán Kissane, Peter Murray and Grace Weir (artist). This seminar is followed by a wine reception and the exhibition preview of Analyzing Cubism in IMMA’s New Galleries at 6.30pm.

There will also be two Gallery Talks.  On Wednesday 13 March at 4.00pm Seán Kissane will present a gallery-walk through of the exhibition, through selected paintings he will explores the various themes and cultural links which connect the life and work of Ireland’s most celebrated 20th-century artists Mainie Jellet, Evie Hone and Mary Swanzy. On Saturday 18 May at 1.00pm, Dr Riann Coulter will discuss key influences on the work of pioneering artist Mainie Jellett.

Admission is free to all talks and lectures but booking online is essential at www.imma.ie/talksandlectures

Analysing Cubism continues until 19 May 2013. Admission is free.

Analysing Cubism is presented as part of the programme of visual arts events celebrating Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union and is supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The exhibition is presented with the support of the French Embassy in Ireland and The Irish Times.

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
except Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Monday: Closed

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

4 February 2013

Supported by:

With the support of the French Embassy in Ireland www.ambafrance-ie.org

Media Sponsors:

In partnership with:

The significant programme of works to upgrade the fire and safety systems in the main building at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which has been underway throughout 2012, will now not be completed until 2013. Because of this and the need for additional works relating to the installation of an art lift, which are subject to planning permission, it has been decided to defer the reopening of the main building until all major construction works are complete. This will also ensure that a possible second period of closure, and associated disruption for the Museum and its visitors, will be avoided.  Accordingly, the main building at IMMA will now reopen in autumn 2013.

In the meantime, exhibitions will continue in the New Galleries at Kilmainham and in the exhibition spaces at the National Concert Hall site in Earlsfort Terrace. Indeed, IMMA’s visitors would appear to have become quite accustomed to this temporary, dual-location model, with up to 200 people visiting both the Alice Maher exhibition (at Earlsfort Terrace until 17 February 2013) and the Sidney Nolan exhibition (at the New Galleries until 27 January 2013) each day. The Museum is continuing to present its full range of children’s, young people’s, adult and education programmes in both locations; as well as an extended talks and lectures programme.

In addition to the exhibitions in the New Galleries, the café and bookshop in Kilmainham will remain open to visitors as will the grounds at IMMA, with four different art trails available to visitors. The Artists’ Residency Programme is operating on a limited basis and will resume fully following the reopening of the main building.

IMMA’s National Programme continues at the newly-opened Luan Gallery in Athlone, Co Westmeath, with an inaugural exhibition drawn from the Museum’s Collection running until 24 February 2013.

The Museum is very grateful to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, TD, and the officials in his Department, for making the spaces in Earlsfort Terrace available; to the OPW, who are responsible for the upkeep of the buildings at IMMA, and to the Chairman, Board, Director and staff of the National Concert Hall for their generous cooperation.

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

19 December 2012

Borrowed Memories is the inaugural exhibition at the new contemporary art gallery in Athlone, Co Westmeath. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Mr Jimmy Deenihan, TD, will officially open the Luan Gallery at 2.30pm on Thursday 29 November 2012 with an exhibition of works from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art as part of IMMA’s National Programme.

In its previous incarnations the building which now houses the Luan Gallery has been many things to many people and to the town of Athlone – a library, concert hall, cinema and town hall to name but a few. Commenting on the exhibition Miriam Mulrennan, Manager, the Luan Gallery said: “Rich and colourful memories are associated with the building. Respect for people’s connection to the building formed a centre point in curating Borrowed Memories.” Designed by Keith Williams Architects, the Luan Gallery is first new visual art gallery to be opened in the country in over three years. The name ‘Luan’ derives from the Irish for Athlone, ‘Baile Áth Luain’ and was proposed as part of a public competition organised to name the new gallery.

Where Do Broken Hearts Go, 2000, by Longford-born Bristol-based artist Daphne Wright became the lynch pin for the idea of memories and the combination of shadow and light that are our own memories and those of others. Layering plays an important part in Wright’s work and here we see, not only the physical layering of the foil strips to create the giant foil cacti, but also the layering of the different elements which come together to make the entire installation – the folded strips of household tinfoil, the Country and Western lyrics and the intaglio prints made from found photographs by an anonymous photographer.

Westmeath-native Patrick Graham’s Ark of Dreaming, 1990, explores both colour and gesture. Words combined with vestiges of figurative imagery, and layers of heavily worked and reworked paint are applied to the canvas which has been ruthlessly split open and crudely stitched together in a diptych suggestive of an alterpiece.

The work of Irish artist Shane Cullen created from the smuggled messages of the 1981 Maze hunger strikers presents itself to the audience as a forceful narrative of a dark time in our history which demands reflection. Fragmens Sur Les Institutions Républicaines IV, 1993 – 1997 was made over a period of four years and consists of 96 large styrofoam panels, each carrying transcriptions of the secret messages smuggled out of the H-Blocks in the Maze Prison. The subject matter is controversial but presented in a highly disciplined manner that references historical monuments. Each painted word mimics official government documents.

The location of the Luan Gallery, in the centre of Ireland, on the banks of the River Shannon is reflected in the work of American artist Ann Hamilton. Filament II, 1996 comprises a silk organza curtain, which has been distressed by the artist, hanging from a circular rail. It is a sculpture with blurred boundaries and changeable volume and form, at once a public and private space. The curtain envelopes you but is transparent, so a shadowy figure is still visible to others standing outside. The presence or absence of people changes perceptions and experience of the work and in this regard it is interactive and participatory.

Works such as Blue Crucifixion, 2003, by Manchester-born, Irish-based artist Hughie O’Donoghue and Dublin-based photographer Amelia Stein’s Memory and Loss, 2002, series of photographs are also shown. Other works shown in the exhibition include Dublin-based artist Amanda Coogan’s photograph Medea, 2001, and Northern Irish photographer Hannah Starkey’s Untitled, August, 1999.

Borrowed Memories is the result of collaboration between the Luan Gallery and IMMA’s National Programme. The National Programme is designed to promote the widest possible involvement with the Museum’s Collection and programmes, through creating access opportunities to the visual arts in a variety of situations and locations in Ireland. IMMA’s Collection is the focal point for each project. The National Programme is also committed to working with venues normally outside the scope of the contemporary art world. This core principle involves a process of encouraging people to view and enjoy ownership of their national collection, as held by IMMA, in their own locality and on their own terms.

Borrowed Memories continues until 24 February 2013. Admission is free.

Luan Gallery
Custume Place
Athlone, Co West Meath
Opening Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 11.00am – 5.00pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.00pm
Phone: 09064 42154
Email: [email protected]
Web:  www.athloneartandheritage.ie

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy, IMMA at Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Email: [email protected]
or
Louise Cassidy, The Marketing Department, Athlone at Tel: +353 86 383 5727, Email [email protected]

21 November 2012

Fabric of Identity, an exhibition from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, opens to the public at the Roscommon Arts Centre on Friday 16 November 2012 at 6.00pm. Dress is an instant and effective display of identity and an important component of our daily lives. By means of clothing, individuals establish their sense of self as well as their place in society. Fabric of Identity explores the presentation of individual and collective identities, private and public personas through a selection of work from the IMMA Collection by artists Marina Abramoviæ, James Hanley, Les Levine, Jackie Nickerson and Janet Mullarney. The third collaboration between Roscommon Arts Centre and the Irish Museum of Modern Art the exhibition is especially curated for the Arts Centre as part of the IMMA National Programme.

The majority of works in the exhibition present the portrait and varying degrees to which individuality is expressed or confined via clothing. Janet Mullarney, however, employs the physical fabric in her sculpture Gift, 2001, to convey the concept of confinement. Commenting on the work Mullarney explained how “Gift derived from a small image seen of a baby Jesus holding out a little garment that looked very like my shirts, now become straight-jackets. The straight-jackets contain various layers and thoughts, one musing on the idea of how it is from the moment we are born we start to die, an incontestabile and horrific thought that we can spend a lifetime trying to make sense of, but can reach no conclusion nor circumvent. Alongside this devastating thought the parallel thought is of life as a gift. The work reflects the confines that society may place upon us and how our communities simultaneously protect and restrict us”. 

Also inspired by religious imagery Jackie Nickerson’s Green Room, 2005, is a compelling portrayal of a hidden world, the Catholic religious orders of Ireland. The work is part of a series of work by Nickerson entitled Faith. Her combination of gentle portraits and simple documentation of daily rituals and communal devotion suggest an austere existence grounded in optimism, strength and contentment. The simplicity of Nickerson’s images invokes the muted and restrained palette of Fra Angelico, bringing an often beatific air to her tranquil subjects. Whilst never suggesting that she is able to divine or represent the veiled mysteries of faith, Nickerson does manage to honestly present a vocational life driven by clarity of purpose and personal courage.

Les Levine’s The Troubles: An Artist’s Document of Ulster, 1972, is a group of 80 photographs forming part of a series of works for which the artist coined the terms “media sculpture” and “media art”. A selection of this series was made for the exhibition. Speaking of the photographic suite Levine says “The piece is extremely colourful. It deals with every aspect of the situation. It goes into Catholic homes, Protestant homes, churches, funerals, explosions…My approach was to take it from the human point of view, not the political. So in all cases, I tried to show the people involved and to evoke some state of mind that they were representing in the photo. I avoided taking sides or showing bias. I think the photos speak for themselves and tell their own extraordinary story”.

Marina Abramoviæ is widely regarded as one of the leading performance artists in the world. Her performances push the human body to extreme limits of endurance, drawing the audience in so that each person, artist and viewer alike, must examine their own place in the human drama and take responsibility for their own actions. A firm belief in the power of mind over body is central to her work. The photographic diptych Role Exchange, 1975, documents a performance of the same name in which Abramoviæ exchanged places with a woman from the Red Light district in Amsterdam. The woman attended the opening of an art exhibition while Abramoviæ took the woman’s place at the window of her house of business. Each woman took full responsibility for the experiences that the role exchange brought with it.

In The Would-Be’s, 1995, James Hanley also creates an unsettling portrait image for the viewer. The triptych combines portraits of three of the artist’s friends with a wryly humorous commentary on the ambitions of youth. The vividness of the painting, the almost garish colour co-ordinations and the mysterious environments in which the three are placed are disconcerting. Through their dress and demeanour references are made to popular culture, the cinema, the Church and history, all presented with characteristic clarity and realism. The full frontal compositions of the three panels, unusual in a triptych, give an air of permanence and authority to the images which is belied by the unsettling light and the morose facial expressions.

This collaboration with Roscommon Arts Centre marks the end of a year long programme dedicated to showing work from major galleries and collections at the Arts Centre. Designed to provide audiences with opportunities to see work from artists working in both traditional and modern artforms locally, the programme has included shows from The Model, Sligo, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, and Limerick City Gallery of Art.
 
The National programme, now in its fifteenth year, is designed to promote the widest possible involvement with the Museum’s Collection and programmes throughout Ireland. 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.

Fabric of Identity continues until 14 December 2012. Admission is Free.

Roscommon Arts Centre
Circular Road, Roscommon, Co Roscommon
Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Friday 11am – 5pm
Saturday 2pm – 5pm on performance days only
Tel: 090 6625824
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.roscommonartscentre.ie 

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

15 November 2012

A collection of 52 prints, by leading Mexican artists, recently acquired by the Irish Museum of Modern Art were unveiled today (Tuesday 13 November) at IMMA. The works, commissioned by the Mexican National Print Museum (MUNAE), have been donated to the Museum as a gesture to mark the historical ties between Mexico and Ireland. The donation has been coordinated by HE Carlos García de Alba, Ambassador of Mexico.

In 2010 Mexico celebrated two anniversaries: the bicentenary of the country’s independence and the centenary of its Revolution. As part of the national commemorative cultural programme, MUNAE commissioned a limited edition collection of 52 prints by 52 artists. The intention was to assemble a representation of contemporary graphic art by Mexican and international artists which would reflect their vision of the processes which shaped Mexico’s history, as well as contributing and helping shape the future of Mexican graphic art. The collection contains works by renowned Mexican artists working in print today including Fernando Aceves Humana, Roberto Turnbull and Helen Escobedo as well as a sculptural work by Leonora Carrington.

Commenting on the donation, Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, IMMA, said: “this new gift adds substantially to our collection of prints and multiples. We are particularly delighted that it introduces the work of Leonora Carrington to the Collection. Of Irish origin, Carrington lived and worked for more than 60 years in Mexico until her death at 94 in 2011. A bronze, Sculture/Vulturel, 2010 will be included by IMMA in a major exhibition of her work in 2013.”

The Mexican Ambassador, Carlos Garcia de Alba, said: “Mexican culture, as Irish culture, is millenarian, rich and diverse. Art and culture have always been a key component of the relationship between both countries. Today, with this donation, we are adding a new solid brick in the bridge that historically has united Mexico and Ireland.”

Ireland and Mexico have many shared experiences and a rich cultural history. IMMA’s programme has featured many contemporary Mexican artists or artists who have worked extensively there. These have included Distant Relations: A Dialogue among Chicano, Irish and Mexican Art and Cultural Writing in 1996, the more recent exhibitions of Mexican inspired works by Francis Alÿs and the highly-acclaimed exhibition in 2011 of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera from the Gelman Collection of Modern Mexican Art. IMMA’s permanent Collection also includes a major installation work by the renowned young Mexican artist Carlos Amorales. In addition, there are significant graphic works by Mexican, and other Latin American artists, which were donated to the IMMA Collection in 2000 by the Smurfit-Kappa Group.

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

13 November 2012

An exhibition of the famous Ned Kelly series of paintings by the celebrated Australian artist Sidney Nolan opens to the public in the New Galleries at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin, on Friday 2 November 2012. The 26 paintings, which are being loaned by the National Gallery of Australia, take the form of stylised depictions of the exploits of the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly, the son of an Irish convict, and his gang in the Australian outback in the late 1870s and early 1880s. These include the shooting of police constables at Stringybark Creek, the siege of Glenrowan and the trial at which Kelly was sentenced to hang. The exhibition is presented by Etihad Airways and is supported by the Australian Embassy Ireland and the Irish Independent.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest series of Australian painting of the 20th-century, Nolan’s starkly simplified depiction of Kelly in his homemade armour has become an iconic Australian image. His grandfather had been a police sergeant in the party pursuing Ned Kelly at Beechworth in Victoria in the 1870s and he grew up on boyhood tales of Kelly. However, Nolan did not intend the series to be a literal portrayal of events. Rather, the various episodes became the setting for the artist’s meditations upon universal themes of injustice, love and betrayal. Above all, the Kelly saga was also a way for Nolan to paint the Australian landscape in new ways, with the story giving meaning to its setting. The works were originally held at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, where Nolan had painted 26 of the 27 when it was the home of his close friends John and Sunday Reed. The 26 paintings were gifted to the National Gallery of Australia in 1977.

Describing the place of the series in the Australian consciousness, Deborah Hart, Senior Curator at National Gallery of Australia says: “In the Ned Kelly series Nolan gave us a fresh and highly distinctive way of thinking about place and the stories that inform the fabric of our nation. His works transport the viewer on a journey with humour, irony and pathos, and great artistic bravura.” Commenting on the series IMMA’s Head of Exhibitions, Rachael Thomas, says: “This exhibition, being presented by Etihad Airways and organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia, reveals and celebrates both the artistry that exists in the myth of Ned Kelly and his powerful story and the remarkable manner in which this is brought to life in Sidney Nolan’s paintings.”

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Etihad Airways is delighted to present the Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly Series in Dublin. The paintings and stories of Ned Kelly are renowned throughout the art world and we were thrilled to carry the art work and team members from the National Gallery in Canberra through to Dublin for the exhibition. Etihad Airways has established tremendous sporting and cultural ties in Ireland and Australia and our close partnership with the Sidney Nolan exhibition further illustrates the level of commitment we have to supporting the arts in both countries.”

Of Irish descent, Sidney Nolan was born in 1917 in Melbourne where he attended the National Gallery of Victoria School of Art. He was conscripted into the army in 1942 and began to paint his immediate surroundings in the Australian outback. From 1953, Nolan began travelling extensively from his base in London and painted many remarkable series of works inspired by his travels to Europe, Africa, China and Antarctica. Nolan made several visits to Ireland, where he painted his Wild Geese series, inspired by the many Irish soldiers who fled the country after the failed Jacobite wars of the 1690s, representing them as well-known latter day exiles and wanderers such as James Joyce and Ernest Shackleton. Six of the series were donated to the IMMA Collection on the foundation of the Museum in 1991, and a further work, Gallipoli, 1955, was donated the following year. The Wild Geese series are included in the exhibition.

Major retrospective exhibitions of Sidney Nolan’s work include the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1957; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, travelling to Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, 1987; and more recently at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007. Nolan’s work is widely represented by the National Gallery of Australia; The Tate, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Pittsburgh Museum of Art, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Sidney Nolan was knighted in 1981 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1983. He died in London in 1992.

A wide-ranging programme of talks and lectures has been organised to coincide with the exhibition.

Talk: Sidney Nolan and Ned Kelly: An Irish-Australian legend
Thursday 1 November, 5.00pm, the Johnston Suite, IMMA
Deborah Hart (Senior Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture post-1920 at the National Gallery of Australia) introduces the work of celebrated Australian artist Sidney Nolan in a lively discussion about his famous Ned Kelly series.

Lecture
Tuesday 13 November, 4.00pm, the Johnston Suite, IMMA
Yvonne Scott, art historian and lecturer, Trinity College Dublin, discusses the use of landscape in the work of artist Sidney Nolan, and explores the artist’s appropriation of established motifs and their reconfiguration to question ideas of national identity.

Gallery Talk
Wednesday 28 November, 4.00pm, New Galleries, IMMA
Mary Cremin, Project Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA, presents a gallery talk on the selection and curation of paintings which feature in the exhibition.

Lecture: Ned and Nolan: Getting to Grips with the Kelly Legend
Tuesday 4 December, 4.00pm, the Johnston Suite, IMMA
Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, currently Keith Cameron Chair of Australian History, School of History and Archives, University College Dublin, is an expert on convict life in Australia. In response to the exhibition, Maxwell-Stewart discusses the political and social significance of the life of the Irish Australian bushranger Ned Kelly.

Admission is free to all talks and lectures but booking online is essential at www.imma.ie/talksandlectures

Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly Series presented by Etihad Airways is curated by Mary Cremin, Project Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA. The exhibition continues until 27 January 2013. Admission is free.

The exhibition is presented by Etihad Airways and is supported by the Australian Embassy Ireland and the Irish Independent.

A catalogue on the Ned Kelly Series, produced by the National Gallery of Australia, is available to purchase from the IMMA bookshop or online at www.theimmashop.com Price €20.00.

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
except Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Monday: Closed

Christmas Opening Hours:
24 – 26 and 31 December: Closed
27 – 30 December and 1 January: 12noon – 5.30pm

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

23 October 2012