A major new partnership between National Irish Bank and the Irish Museum of Modern Art to promote greater community involvement in the visual arts was announced today (Wednesday 18 December 2002). ‘Branching Out’ is designed to be an inclusive and participative programme, engaging communities across the country in the visual arts.

Six projects from IMMA’s 2003 National Programme –in Clonmel, Mullingar, Ennis, Tallaght, Limerick and Cork – have been selected to take part. In every location the Museum, in conjunction with the venue and the local National Irish branch, is putting in place an education programme to support each exhibition. Each programme will be different, and may include a public lecture, workshops for local groups or talks for local schoolchildren. Geographical spread was important in the choice of locations, to ensure as many people as possible would be able to enjoy the high quality arts programmes with which IMMA is associated.

Employees of selected branches will be involved at different levels – taking part in workshops with their families and customers, hosting opening events and inviting local groups to be involved.

Speaking at the announcement John Trethowan, Chief Operating Officer of National Irish Bank said: “ The National Irish Bank Community Investment Programme already includes a number of successful arts partnerships. We are very proud of the achievements of our arts partners in ensuring that people of all ages are able to engage in their communities through the provision of high quality creative activities. In working with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, we will be supporting the development of an interactive outreach programme at six locations across the country. We look forward to encouraging our employees, their families and our customers to get involved in enjoyable and enriching local initiatives.”

Expressing the Museum’s thanks to National Irish for their very valuable support, IMMA’s Chairperson Eoin McGonigal, SC, said that the sponsorship fitted in perfectly with the Museum’s plans for the National Programme and its strategy of creating a greater education and community dimension for the programme.

He said: “The National Programme is one of our proudest achievements bringing the resources of IMMA to up to 24 locations and 35,000 people outside the Dublin area each year. This new injection of funding will enable it to move on to even greater things.”

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane at Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999, Email : [email protected]

18 December 2002

A variety of small animals have recently taken up residence in the grounds at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The animals, which take the form of a series of road signs, are part of an installation by British artist Julian Opie commissioned by BALTIC – the centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England, to mark its opening in July of this year.

The installation comprises five signs from Opie’s Escaped Animals series – a cat, a fox, a hedgehog, a sheep and a squirrel – which have been placed along the West Avenue at IMMA. Like real road signs, these graphic images are designed to be read and understood instantly. Reduced to their bare essentials, all unnecessary or excessive visual information edited out, they function as symbols for the things they represent. And yet, unlike real road signs, they do not point the way or tell us where to go, but encourage us instead to make our own interpretation.

The Escaped Animals are designed to ‘point the way’ to BALTIC from outside a number of leading museums and galleries. In addition to IMMA, those participating are the Arnolfini, Bristol; the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Tate Liverpool and the Tate Modern, London.

The works are very kindly being donated to IMMA’s Collection by BALTIC. Born in London in 1958, Julian Opie has exhibited widely in Europe and the United States. His one-person exhibitions include Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Lisson Gallery, London, (2001), Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (1999), and the Hayward Gallery, London (1993). Recent group exhibitions include Sitooteries, Belsay Hall, Northumberland (2000), Intelligence: New British Art 2000 (Tate Gallery, London) and Every Day, 11th Biennial of Sydney (1998). Other projects include multiples, colouring books and designs for record sleeves (St. Etienne and Blur album covers, 2000).

Admission free.

Opening hours: Tue – Sat 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sun, Bank Holidays, 27, 28, 31 Dec and 1 Jan 12 noon – 5.30pm

Mondays and 24 – 26, 30 Dec Closed

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane at Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999, Email : [email protected]

5 December 2002

Visitor numbers at the Irish Museum of Modern Art have shown a further increase this year and are set to top the 290,000 mark by year end, the highest attendance figure for IMMA since the record-breaking Andy Warhol exhibition of 1997-98. In addition to those visiting the Museum itself, an estimated 35,000 people experience IMMA’s work at 24 locations throughout the country via the Museum’s National Programme.

Highlights for 2002 include:

· critically-acclaimed exhibitions by the American installation and video artist Ann Hamilton, the German photographer Thomas Ruff and the Derry-based photographic and video artist Willie Doherty,

· major acquisitions to the Collection, including the Táin Tapestries by Louis le Brocquy, paintings by Damien Hirst and Peter Halley and installations by Ann Hamilton and Anish Kapoor,

· an increase of almost 70% in primary school visits and a 60% growth in the number of secondary school students attending the Museum,

· a 75% increase in those becoming Friends of IMMA, following a recruitment drive in August, and

· the completion of refurbishing work on the lecture theatre by the OPW with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment and a separate air-handling unit.

Visitor numbers during the summer months were also boosted by a lively and amusing advertising campaign based on the exhibition of Parkett artists’ editions and the tagline “Need to get out more?”

Commenting on the figures, Acting Director, Philomena Byrne, said that they were a testament to the commitment and hard work of each and every member of IMMA’s staff. “We are now looking forward to building on this success as we enter a new and exciting phase in the Museum’s development, with the arrival of our recently appointed Director, Enrique Juncosa, in February 2003”, she said.

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999,
Email : [email protected]

2 December 2002

An exhibition based on the results of two different residencies by the artist Terry O’Farrell – one a long-term project with older people; the other a short-term residency with young children – is now open to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition, entitled Equivalence, is organised by the Museum’s Education and Community Department as part of its remit of engaging with the primary school, community and education sectors.

For the past two years O’Farrell has been working with the St. Michael’s Parish Active Retirement Art group, Inchicore, in the Museum’s studios on a project exploring significant themes from their life experiences. Earlier this year she was invited by Dun Laoghaire – Rathdown County Council’s Art Office to participate in their Artist-in-Residence in Schools scheme, which involved working with a group of 10 and 11 year-old children for 8 days over a two-month period in both the Muslim School, Clonskeagh, and in IMMA, to explore the theme of journeys. The older people’s work, Life, and the children’s work, Two Journeys, will include paintings, drawings, photographs and works in clay.

The museum’s education work to date, with primary school teachers and children, is used as a resource for the revised Primary School Curriculum, through the publication in 1999 of A Space to Grow. Its work with older People has been evaluated by the Centre for Adult and Community Education, NUI, Maynooth, and disseminated nationally and internationally through its publications over the past years, most notably by even her nudes were lovely: towards self reliance at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

The staging of an exhibition based on this work serves to underline the importance which the Museum places on making the outcome of such projects available to a wider public. This policy has been endorsed by the level of interest in such projects shown both by fellow museum professionals within Ireland and internationally, and by the general gallery-going public.

Commenting on the exhibition, Helen O’Donoghue, IMMA’s Head of Education and Community Programmes said: “Equivalence draws on two stories in contemporary Ireland, on the one hand the stories of young children who have recently come to live here and on the other, the lifelong stories of older people, many of whom have lived in St. Michael’s parish in Inchicore for over sixty years. Terry O’Farrell has sensitively empowered both groups to tell their stories, explore their dreams and articulate their aspirations. Her skill in drawing from people the essence of what they wish to say is evident in the completed clayworks, each one a metaphor of the lived and wished for experiences of the maker. Terry O’Farrell has a unique practice as an artist who engages with other people’s creativity and facilitates a dialogue, through initial conversation”.

The exhibition continues until 9 February 2003.

Admission is free.

An exhibition guide with an essay by Siún Hanrahan accompanies the exhibition (price €4.00).

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999, Email : [email protected]

18 November 2002

The Chairperson and Board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art today (Monday 11 November 2002) announced the appointment of Enrique Juncosa, currently Deputy Director of the prestigious Reina Sofía National Museum of Modern Art (MNCARS) in Madrid, as the new Director of IMMA.

Born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in 1961, Enrique Juncosa has been Deputy Director of MNCARS since 2000, where he is responsible for exhibitions, the collection, education and publications. The MNCARS, which has a team of 300 people, organises over 30 exhibitions every year and has an acquisition budget of €10 million. Mr Juncosa has curated eight of these exhibitions at the Reina Sofía, including major shows of Warhol-Basquiat-Clemente, Panamarenko, Eva Lootz and Bhupen Khakhar.

Prior to moving to MNCARS, Mr Juncosa was Deputy Director of the highly-regarded Institute of Modern Art in Valencia (IVAM), where he curated exhibitions by Willem de Kooning, Michael Craig-Martin, Philip Taaffe, Terry Winters and many other leading artists. From 1992 to 1998, Mr Juncosa was visual art critic for El País, Spain’s most prestigious and largest-circulation daily newspaper. During this time he also worked as a freelance curator for shows by Barry Flanagan, Malcolm Morley and Miquel Barceló – in Spain and also in France, Germany, the UK and Norway.

Mr Juncosa is the great-nephew of the famous Spanish Modernist painter Joan Miró and, since 1992, has been a trustee of the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation. He is also a noted poet, having had five books of poetry published in Spain. A new volume of poetry, with illustrations by the Irish-based artist Barry Flanagan, is being published in December.

Speaking at a reception to mark the announcement, IMMA’s Chairperson, Eoin McGonigal, SC, said that everyone associated with the Museum was delighted to have secured as its new Director someone of such obvious distinction and ability. “Enrique Juncosa has impressed us all with his curatorial flair and experience, the scholarly but accessible nature of his publications, his excellent and wide-ranging contacts with international artists and museums and his capacity to lead and work well with the existing team at IMMA”, he said.

Mr McGonigal also paid tribute to the management and staff of IMMA, and to its Acting Director, Philomena Byrne, for the exemplary manner in which they had, so successfully, upheld the work and ethos of the Museum over the past 18 months.

Mr Juncosa said he was thrilled to take over the direction of a museum like IMMA, which already had such a high international reputation and such a dedicated and professional staff. He added: “I would like to continue the Museum’s programme of international exhibitions and to develop its already very interesting collection of works by both Irish and international artists and its widely-praised education and community programme”. Mr. Juncosa also said he felt very lucky to work in a museum housed in such a fine historical building, mentioning that, coincidentally, the MNCARS was also housed in a former hospital.

Enrique Juncosa will take up the post of Director in February 2003.

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Fax: +353 1 612 9999 Email : [email protected]

11 November 2002

A major mid-career retrospective of the work of the internationally-acclaimed, Derry-born artist Willie Doherty opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Thursday 31 October 2002. ‘Willie Doherty: False Memory’ is the first substantial showing of Doherty’s work in Ireland and one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of his work anywhere to date.

The exhibition, which comprises more than 40 photographic works and slide/tape and video installations, explores themes of memory and place – concerns which have preoccupied the artist throughout his career. Closely keyed to his native city of Derry and the Northern Ireland “Troubles”, Doherty’s work reveals a complex and shifting range of relationships between places, events and the images by which they come to be represented and recalled.

Much of the work is open ended, forcing the viewer to move beyond the surface picture to explore the fallibility of human memory and our need to engage with the stories and images that make up our experience. ’30th January 1972′ (1993), for example, comprises two projections – one showing news footage of a crowd scene on Bloody Sunday, the other a view of Glenfada Park (scene of fatal Bloody Sunday shootings) as it looked in August 1993. These projections are accompanied by three audio tracks – one recorded during the shooting on Bloody Sunday, the other two being edited extracts from interviews with passersby on Rossville Street (another location of the fatal shootings) in August 1993. The central point is that the work is not intended to be a contribution to the body of documentary evidence on Bloody Sunday, but rather an attempt to investigate the impact of such a traumatic event on private and public memory and identity.

‘Willie Doherty: False Memory’ presents many such key works from all stages of the artist’s career. These include early black and white photographs, such as ‘Mesh’ (1986) and ‘The Blue Skies of Ulster’ (1986), and large colour cibachrome photographs, such as ‘Unapproved Road I’ (1992) and ‘Out of Sight’ (1997), which exist on the borderline between the documentary and the staged. In these works Doherty places us at the edge of the city, between the familiar and the unknown – a highly mediated place, shaped from a combination of television news coverage, cinematic fantasy, tourist information, popular stereotypes and collective memory. The seminal slide installations ‘Same Difference’ (1990) and ‘They’re All the Same’ (1991) question how language can shape our perceptions of images, in this instance media images of IRA suspects. Doherty’s most recent video installation, ‘Re-Run’ (2002), commissioned by the British Council for this year’s 25th São Paolo Bienal, is here shown for the first time in Ireland.

Commenting on the exhibition, Brenda McParland, Head of Exhibitions at IMMA, said: “Much of Doherty’s artistic output is closely linked to the physical and political landscape of the city of Derry and its environs. However, there is a measure of detachment in his work that resonates beyond Ireland, giving it universal appeal and international significance”.

Born in Derry in 1959, Willie Doherty is an artist of international standing. In 1993 he (and Dorothy Cross) represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale. He was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1994 and was the recipient of the IMMA Glen Dimplex Artists Award the following year. Earlier this year he represented the United Kingdom at the São Paulo Bienal. He has exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions in Derry, Dublin, London, New York and Paris and has contributed to group shows worldwide.

The following talks have been organised to coincide with the exhibition.

Gallery Talk: Thursday 7 November at 11.00am
Willie Doherty: False Memory
Critic, curator, lecturer and contributing writer to the accompanying catalogue, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, discusses the exhibition.

Gallery Talk: Sunday 17 November at 3.00pm
Willie Doherty: False Memory Brenda McParland, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, presents an introductory tour of the exhibition.

Lecture: Tuesday 3 December at 8.00pm
The Winter Lecture
The 2002 Winter Lecture is presented by Willie Doherty.

A major full-colour monograph, published by IMMA and Merrell publishers, London, with essays by the chief curator of the Castello di Rivoli, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and writer and critic, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, accompanies the exhibition (price €35.00).

The exhibition is curated by Brenda McParland, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA.
The exhibition is supported by the British Council.

The exhibition continues until 2 March 2003.

Admission is free.

Opening hours: Tue – Sat 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sun, Bank Holidays, 27, 28, 31 Dec and 1 Jan 12 noon – 5.30pm

Mondays and 24 – 26, 30 Dec Closed

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999, Email : [email protected]

10 October 2002

An exhibition of 23 works from the Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection opens to the public at Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, on Thursday 10 October 2002 as part of a collaborative project between the hospital and IMMA’s National Programme. ‘Body and Soul’ combines artworks by Irish and International artists in a wide variety of media and includes paintings by Nick Miller and Camille Souter, prints by Tim Mara and Craig Wood and sculpture by Dorothy Cross and Janet Mullarney.

Commenting on the project Johanne Mullan, National Programmer at IMMA, said: “The arts have traditionally, had a strong part to play in the healing process and their vital role in the well being of many individuals has being clearly documented. The presence of a vibrant Visual Arts Programme at Mayo General Hospital is testament to the benefits of initiatives such as this and IMMA is delighted to be involved in this latest initiative. It is clear that Mayo General Hospital is seeking to promote the visual arts within the hospital not merely to distract but to engage the patient, visitor and staff alike.”

Works in the exhibition include ‘The Flying Komarov’ one of the ‘Ten Character Albums’ by the Russian artist Ilya Kabakov who deals with both hope and fear through his fictional characters. The Albums can be read as visual narratives which play on the imagination and entice the viewer to recapture their sense of childlike wonder that is, all too often, constrained by everyday living. Patrick Hall’s ‘Ancestors’ reflects the artist’s preoccupation with his personal history and the forces that shape our destiny. Hall’s work emphasises the importance of everyday reality, however his application of paint gives even the most mundane of objects a mysterious though somber identity. ‘Untitled’ by Sean Scully is an example of the artist’s faith in the power of colour and form to appeal to our unconscious emotions, through the collision of the strongly contrasting colours which belies the simplicity of the composition. The exhibition embraces many of the most challenging issues and practices found in contemporary art. Thoughtful and stimulating, each artwork leads the viewer to both question and re-affirm their values and beliefs.

The National Programme, now in its sixth year, is designed to make the assets, skills and resources of the Museum available to centers outside Dublin. Through the lending of exhibitions and individual works, and the development of collaborative projects with other organisations, the National Programme establishes the Museum as inclusive, accessible and national.

‘Body and Soul’ continues until 3 January 2003 at Mayo General Hospital,
Castlebar, Co Mayo.

The exhibition is on view in public areas throughout the hospital.

A full-colour catalogue with an introduction by Dr Luke O’Donnell, Mayo General Hospital, and an essay by Catherine Marshall, Head of Collections, IMMA, and Johanne Mullan, National Programmer, IMMA, accompanies the exhibition (price €10.00).

The National Programme will also be presenting two more collaborative exhibitions in Mayo during this time – to celebrate the opening of the recently extended Arts Centre the exhibition Life, Living & Leisure will be on show at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo from the 5 October to 2 November 2002 and an exhibition of work by Brian Maguire and Alanna O’Kelly can be seen at the Granuaile Centre, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, to coincide with the Sonas Children’s Festival from the 14 to 20 October 2002.

For further information and colour images please contact Monica Cullinane at the Irish Museum of Modern Art Tel: 01 612 9900, Fax: 01 612 9923,
Email: [email protected]

1 October 2002

An exhibition from the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s own Collection exploring the many aspects of lens-based art opens to the public at IMMA on Wednesday 18 September 2002. The Unblinking Eye was devised in response to two major solo exhibitions at IMMA by artists who work with the camera; an exhibition of still photographs by the German artist, Thomas Ruff, with which this show will overlap for a short period, followed directly by a mid-career retrospective of the Derry-born artist Willie Doherty who’s work comprises photography, video, sound and text.

‘The Unblinking Eye’ comprises approximately 40 works, and draws on a wide range of practices, all of which incorporate the camera to make artworks of great diversity and technique. Works range from photoworks which document performances by artists such as Nigel Rolfe and Marina Abramoviæ, digitally manipulated images by Grenville Davey and Angus Fairhurst, video works by Marie Jo LaFontaine, Ann Hamilton and Caroline McCarthy and a tape/slide installation by Pauline Cummins. Seen here for the first time in Ireland are four works by Hermione Wiltshire from the series ‘I Modi’. Wiltshire wittingly combines photographs of various reserved libraries in Rome with silhouettes taken from the erotic drawings by the 16th-century Italian artist Giulio Romano.

The photograph as evidence, as documentary record of reality has been used widely both inside and outside the artworld. Rachel Whiteread’s, ‘Demolished’, a set of before and after images of the destruction of 1960s London Tower blocks, are a beautiful but sobering reminder of the frailty of human aspiration. A similar theme lies at the heart of the installation, ‘Property’, by Beat Klein and Hendrikje Kühne. This work draws on advertising photographs from the property supplement of The Irish Times during the month of August 1998, a period of extraordinary economic growth in which rapidly rising house prices brought joy to some and despair to others. Their playful use of existing photographs exposes the fragile edifice of that economic boom.

The widespread acceptance of the photograph as evidence is subtly undermined by Hannah Collins’ use of black and white photography. Denying the colour of the visible world Collins’ unframed, large scale photoworks include the viewer and the architectural surroundings. Craigie Horsfield’s use of two dates, the date the photograph was taken and the date on which he printed it, raises the question about truth in relation to time. His deliberate destruction of the negative when he has made one unique and vulnerable print challenges another perception of photography, that it is endlessly available and does not require our total attention.

The Unblinking Eye continues until 16 February 2003.

The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition guide with text by Catherine Marshall, Senior Curator: Head of Collections at IMMA, (Price €3.00).

The exhibition is sponsored by Meritec Presentation Products, Ireland’s Dedicated Hitachi Distributors.

Admission is free.

Opening hours: Tue – Sat 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sun, Bank Holidays 12 noon – 5.30pm
27, 28, 31 Dec and 1 Jan 12 noon – 5.30pm

Closed: Mondays and 24 – 26 Dec

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane at Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999, Email: [email protected]
5 September 2002

The first solo exhibition in Ireland by the American artist Karen Kilimnik, best known for her richly diverse work interweaving history and fantasy, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Friday 27 September 2002. The body of 26 works in Karen Kilimnik: Fairy Battle embody the extraordinary eclectic nature of the artist’s work, from her early “scatter piece” installations and historical fantasy drawings to exquisite flower paintings, sculptures and photographs.

The exhibition, selected in the context of the historical setting of IMMA, addresses in a characteristically individual way both historical subjects and contemporary popular culture. It also reflects Kilimnik’s varied passions. These range from Tsarist Russia, classical ballet and the Gothic aesthetic, to today’s celebrity culture built around pop stars and glamour magazines, and, more recently, the world of fairies and fairy tales. In fact, Kilimnik’s work is crammed full of fairytale references, including dashing barons, tinkling chandeliers, wolves and sleighs, creating a magical world in which history, myth and reality coexist.

Other works are sourced from glossy magazines, soap operas and television shows, reflecting Kilimnik’s preoccupation with icons of popular culture such as Sharon Tate, Leonardo di Caprio, Kate Moss and Elizabeth Taylor. Placing these characters within her own work Kilimnik again, creates her own reality, where past and present, fact and fiction dissolve to offer us a reinterpretation of our cultural history.

Often naïve and innocent on the surface, on closer inspection Kilimnik’s works often reveal a darker side as in Redlands, Keith Richard’s House, Day of the Drug Arrest, 1966. In a publication accompanying the exhibition, writer and critic Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith describes how Kilimnik’s work has always shown how “the capacity to tap into deep-seated human fears and fantasies is not exclusive to so-called high culture… Behind her deceptively light touch, disarming awkwardness and unabashed enthusiasms, lies a willingness to accommodate a more generous range of imaginative possibilities than that countenanced by much of contemporary western culture.”

Born in Philadelphia, Karen Kilimnik has exhibited internationally since the early 1990s and has had solo exhibitions at the South London Gallery, the Bonner Kunstverein, Germany, and the 303 Gallery, New York.
Two gallery talks have been organized to coincide with the exhibition. On Friday 27 September Rachael Thomas, co-curator of the show will explore themes of history, myth and popular culture in Kilimnik’s work, while on Sunday 6 October Sarah Glennie, co-curator will give an introductory tour of the exhibition. Admission to the talks is free but booking is essential.
Tel: 01 612 9948.
The exhibition is curated by Sarah Glennie and Rachael Thomas.
A publication with a text by Caoimhín MacGiolla Léith accompanies the exhibition.

Karen Kilimnik: Fairy Battle continues until 2 February 2003.
Admission is free.
Opening hours: Tue – Sat 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sun, Bank Holidays 12 noon – 5.30pm
27, 28, 31 Dec and 1 Jan 12 noon – 5.30pm
Mondays and 24-26 Dec Closed

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999, Email : [email protected]

29 August 2002

The first major exhibition in this country by the acclaimed German photographer Thomas Ruff opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Friday 2 August 2002. ‘Thomas Ruff: Photographs 1979 to the Present’, which comprises over a 100 works, presents an extensive overview of every facet of the artist’s output, including his deceptively straightforward shots of architecture and interiors and his famous oversized, deadpan ‘Portrait’ series, on which he has been working since 1980.

Thomas Ruff’s art explores the objective gaze of the lens and the role of the viewer, the photographer and the subject. In addition to his interiors and portraits, he has worked with many other subjects, including landscape, nightscape, nudes and collage, all of which interrogate the medium of photography. Ruff has explored many familiar genres and has an uncanny feel for the ordinary – in people, places and objects.

For the first time, in this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, Ruff’s artistic oeuvre is placed within the overall context of the 15 series of works he has created to date. Working in series is an integral part of Ruff’s work. He describes the process as being “like a scientist carrying out a series of experiments … I am convinced that it is not enough to make a portrait of just one person if you want to get an idea of the human being, in order to have as comprehensive a picture as possible, you have to make portraits of as many people as possible. The same applies to houses, heavenly bodies, newspaper photos, night shots and so on, right down to sexual fantasies. A single picture is too little, that is why I work in series.”

Born in 1958 in Zell am Harmersbach in the Black Forest, Thomas Ruff acquired his first camera, a small-format Nikon FTN, at the age of 16. Three years later he enter the Dusseldorf Art Academy, where he studied under the highly-influential Bernd Becher. By the age of 23 he was already showing his works in major galleries in Germany, achieving international acclaim with his ‘Portraits’ series in 1987-88. Ruff’s work has since been shown throughout Europe and in the United States, Japan and Israel. In 1992 he took part in Documenta 9 and in 1995 was represented in the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Since 2000 he has held the post of Professor at the State Academy in Dusseldorf.

Thomas Ruff: Photographs 1979 to the Present is a touring exhibition organised by Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. The exhibition is supported by the Institute of Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart, and the Göethe Institute, Dublin.

A major full-colour publication, published by the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden with an essay by the curator Dr Matthias Winzen, accompanies the exhibition (price €35.00).

Mr Ian Jeffrey, art historian and writer on the history of photography, will give a talk on the Thomas Ruff exhibition at IMMA on Thursday 1 August at 11.00am.

‘Thomas Ruff: Photographs 1979 to the Present’ continues until 6 October.

Admission to the exhibition is free.

Opening hours: Tue – Sat 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sun & Bank Holidays 12 noon – 5.30pm
Mondays Closed

For further information and colour and black and white images please contact Monica Cullinane at Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999 Email : [email protected]
23 July 2002