A noted international curator, Annie Fletcher has extensive leadership experience in the contemporary arts. In addition to her role as Chief Curator at Van Abbemuseum she is a tutor at de Appel, Amsterdam, the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) and the Design Academy Eindhoven, and regularly worked with art institutions around the world including the SALT Istanbul, New Museum, New York, and L’Internationale network and De Appel Art Centre, Amsterdam. In 2012 she was Curator of Ireland’s Contemporary Art biennale EVA International and is regularly called upon to sit on major International juries, including the Turner Prize in 2014 and the selection committee for the Irish Pavilion at Venice in 2016.

Minister Josepha Madigan welcomed her appointment commenting; “Ms Fletcher brings great experience and dynamism to this important role. In addition to her work as Chief Curator of the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, she has worked with numerous cultural institutions in Ireland and across the world. Her passion for contemporary art and how it can resonate with the public will, I have no doubt, enable the Irish Museum of Modern Art to grow its footprint and impact both in Ireland and internationally. Her extensive domestic and international experience indicates that she will be well equipped to undertake this challenging and rewarding role.”

Born in Ireland Fletcher studied in Trinity College Dublin and started her career in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1994. She was Acting Head of Exhibitions in IMMA in 2001-2002 where she produced, among other projects, the seminal performance art weekend Marking the Territory. Curated by Marina Abramovic this three day event attracted capacity audiences to the museum. She partnered with IMMA, and then Director Sarah Glennie, on several exhibitions over the past five years, including solo presentations of Duncan Campbell and Sheela Gowda and most recently co-curated the 2016 IMMA group exhibition El Lissitzky: the Artist and the State with work from Rosella Biscotti, Nuria Guell, Alice Milligan, Sarah Pierce and Hito Steyerl, and is very much looking forward to returning to IMMA to lead the museum into its next phase. As a curator she is particular interested in how an encounter with art can generate a shared civic space and how, in today’s world, contemporary art can address complex ideas of time, space and participation in order to achieve resonance with the public.

IMMA Chairman David Harvey commented; “The Board of IMMA undertook a robust recruitment exercise and we are delighted that Annie has emerged from a strong international field of exceptional candidates as the new Director of the museum. Annie is a highly respected curator with extensive international experience and networks that can deliver on IMMA’s mission to connect audiences and art and provide an extraordinary space in Ireland where contemporary life and contemporary art connect, challenge and inspire one another. The Board has every confidence that under her Directorship IMMA will continue to place the generation of new ideas and innovation at the heart of the organisation, enabling artists to make the work they want to make while bringing Ireland’s cultural innovators into a deeper dialogue and a more fluid relationship with key international platforms and partners.”

Speaking about her new appointment Annie Fletcher commented: “I am thrilled to be taking up the position of Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It is a huge honour to be invited to lead the institution, building on IMMA’s growing legacy since its establishment in 1991. Returning to Ireland, I am excited to start working with such an inspiring, talented and active artistic community. At the same time I look forward to initiating international collaborations and dialogues, drawing on the rich discourses and artistic practices I have had the privilege to encounter over the last 20 years.”

Fletcher is currently working on a mid-career survey of the award winning artist-led collective Otolith Group and has recently curated or co-curated projects including the midcareer surveys of Qiu Zhijie, Hito Steyerl, Sheela Gowda David Malkjovic all at Van Abbemuseum. She has worked on the Museum of Arte Útil with Tania Bruguera, which opened in the autumn of 2013 at the Van Abbemuseum and developed the award winning two year programme Be(com)ing Dutch. She was co-founder and co-director of the rolling curatorial platform If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution with Frederique Bergholtz and Tanja Elstgeest (2005-10). As a writer she has contributed to various magazines including Afterall, Metropolis M and other publications. Annie Fletcher will take up the post of Director on 1st March 2019.

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For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane at tel: +353 1 612 9922; email: [email protected]

Opening on 26 October 2018, IMMA is delighted to present two major solo exhibitions, Voyages by Irish born modernist master Mary Swanzy (1882 – 1978) and Rebuilding the Future by internationally renowned German artist Wolfgang Tillmans.

The exhibitions will be opened by Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan T.D., on the evening of Thursday 25 October 2018 and will open to the public on Friday 26 October at 11.30am.

These two IMMA initiated exhibitions exemplify the breadth of the museum’s programme. Mary Swanzy is arguably Ireland’s first ‘modernist’ painter and this is the first major retrospective of her work since 1968. This exhibition aims to reintroduce audiences to Swanzy’s extraordinary achievements and reinstate her as a Modern Irish Master. Wolfgang Tillmans’ relationship with IMMA began over 20 years ago, when he first exhibited work at the museum in 1997 as part of a group exhibition of young emerging artists Projects and more recently in 2015 in the popular exhibition What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now. This is his first solo exhibition in Ireland and he has created this exhibition specifically for the IMMA galleries. It follows his critically acclaimed solo show in Tate Modern, London in 2017.

Minister Madigan said “We are certain this historical reframing of Swanzy as a feminist artist of our time will reposition her powerful work on the Irish and International stage. Part of the ongoing important work IMMA does is to connect Irish audiences with contemporary work of international relevance and significance – Wolfgang Tillmans’ exhibition builds on IMMA’s twenty-year connection with Tillmans’ work. Both exhibitions will be free to the public and we feel sure will have a lasting impact on all that visit them, no doubt sowing the seeds for future generations of Irish artists.”

Wolfgang Tillmans commented “This exhibition at IMMA is long overdue. Having been in two group presentations at the museum, it’s now very timely to realise my first solo exhibition in Ireland.”

Mary Swanzy (1882-1978) is a unique Irish artist. Her level of achievement, world travel and original thinking is unmatched in Irish art, yet this is the first retrospective of her work in 50 years. Born in the late Victorian era, by her early twenties Swanzy had mastered the academic style of painting. She witnessed the birth of Modern art in Paris before the First World War and her work rapidly evolved through the different styles of the day, each of them interpreted and transformed by her in a highly personal way. In 1920, against the background of violence of the Irish War of Independence, she left Ireland in a form of self-imposed exile. Traveling first through Eastern Europe and the Balkans, she then sailed to Hawaii and Samoa from 1923 to 24 – literally crossing the globe. While there she produced a body of work that is unique in an Irish context with images that show her proto-feminism and critique of the colonial system. Best known for her Cubist and Futurist paintings, after 1914 she exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon des Indépendants and the Beaux Arts, alongside artists who are now household names. By 1946 she was included in exhibitions with Chagall, William Scott and Henry Moore but after this time her work fell into obscurity. This may in part have been due to her status as a female artist and indeed she was vocal on issues of gender, remarking; ‘if I had been born Henry instead of Mary my life would have been very different’. This exhibition aims to introduce audiences to her extraordinary achievements.

Wolfgang Tillmans (b. 1968, Remscheid, Germany) is one of the most accomplished and widely celebrated artists working today, recognised for major contributions to the development of contemporary photography in terms of subject matter, production, scale, presentation and methodology. Rebuilding the Future comprises over 100 works and captures Tillmans’ unique way of working. This new exhibition for IMMA mixes works from throughout his career and in numerous formats, installed in IMMA’s galleries in direct relation to the physical spaces and atmosphere of the museum. While primarily a lens-based artist, Tillmans also works in a variety of other media. The exhibition includes works on paper made with and without a camera, sound work, moving image works and installation. Also central to Tillmans’ practice is the prolific production of books, catalogues and magazine editorials, and more recently, live and recorded music. An immersive new sound work, I Want to Make a Film (2018), which engages with concerns over the speed and development of personal technology and its effects, is shown here at IMMA for the first time.

Rebuilding the Future includes work that is concerned with the process of time, whether it be measured through people or places. The exhibition functions as an open question for the audience to interpret. This broad range of subject matter is reflected in the variety of production and display methods seen in the exhibition. In this, as in all exhibitions produced by Tillmans, the work is selected and installed to reflect both the nature of the physical space and Tillmans’ immediate concerns at the time of the exhibition. Tillmans will give an artist talk about his work prior to the exhibition opening, on Saturday 20 October, in partnership with NCAD. Please see details below under Associated Talks & Events or visit the booking page for details.

A fully illustrated monograph accompanies the Mary Swanzy exhibition with text by Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA, and a biography by Liz Cullinane, artist and researcher. An exhibition poster designed by artist will accompany the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition. An exhibition catalogue will also be published in the coming months. All exhibition merchandise will be available to purchase from the IMMA Shop.

Mary Swanzy, Voyages, is curated by Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA. Voyages is presented as part of the Modern Masters Series and will travel to the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork and Limerick City Gallery of Art in 2019.

Wolfgang Tillmans, Rebuilding the Future, is curated by Sarah Glennie, Director, National College of Art and Design and Rachel Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA, in close cooperation with the artist.

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For further information and images please contact
For Mary Swanzy – Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T:+353 (0)1 612 9921
For Wolfgang Tillmans – Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T:+353 (0)1 612 9922

Image captions: On left Wolfgang Tillmans / Elephant Man, 2002 / © Wolfgang Tillmans / courtesy Maureen Paley, London. On right Mary Swanzy / Young Woman with a White Bonnetc.1920 / Oil on Canvas /  99 x 80 cm / Private Collection / Courtesy Pyms Gallery, London

Additional Notes for Editors

About Mary Swanzy
Mary Swanzy (1882 – 1978) was a pioneering figure in Irish art. Born in Merrion Square in 1882 she was educated in Dublin, Germany and Paris at the turn of the last century. There she witnessed the birth of Modern Art and after 1914 exhibited at the Paris Salons alongside those modern artists who are now household names. She mastered the academic style of painting at a young age and her work rapidly evolved through different styles: Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Symbolism and Surrealism; each of these interpreted and transformed by her in a highly personal way. Very widely travelled and well educated, she spoke several languages and had seen much of Europe by the age of twenty. Following the devastation of the First World War she went to Czechoslovakia as an aid worker and travelled widely in the region. In 1923 she literally crossed the world on an epic voyage to Hawaii and Samoa producing a body of work that is unique in an Irish context. Throughout the 20s and 30s she exhibited in the USA, Hawaii, UK, Belgium, Ireland and regularly in Paris at both the Salon des Indépendents and the Beaux-Arts. In 1920 she was elected to the committee of the Paris Indépendants and she also participated in the founding of the Society of Dublin Painters – Ireland’s first Modern Art gallery; and participated in the first Irish Exhibition of Living Art. In 1946 she was included in a group exhibition in London with Braque, Vlaminck, Dufy, Chagall, William Scott and Henry Moore. This record of achievement is unsurpassed by her better-known contemporaries yet there has not been a substantial exhibition of Swanzy’s work in Dublin since her 1968 Retrospective at the Municipal Gallery.

About Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans (b. Remscheid, Germany,1968) lives and works in Berlin and London. He graduated from Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design in 1992. He has won numerous awards including the Turner Prize, UK (2000), the Cultural award of the German Society for Photography (2009), the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, Sweden (2015) and the Goslar Kaiserring Award, Germany (2018). From 2009-2014 he was an Artists Trustee on the Board of Tate, London. From 2003 to 2009 he was Professor for Interdisciplinary Art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. In 2006 he opened Between Bridges, a not-for-profit exhibition space in London that now operates in Berlin.

Recent major solo exhibitions have been held at Musée d’Art Contemporain et Multimédias, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Circle Art Gallery and GoDown Arts Centre Nairob, Kenya, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa (2018); Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland, Tate Modern, London (2017); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2016); The National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka, Japan and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2015), Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, Germany and Les Rencontres d’Arles, France and Museo de Arte de Lima (2013); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2012); Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2011) and Serpentine Gallery, London (2010).

His work has been included in significant survey exhibitions including the 5th Biennale of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece (2015), Manifesta 10, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014), Fundamentals, the 14th International Architecture Biennale directed by Rem Koolhaas, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2014), Berlin Biennale, Germany (2014, 1998), the British Art Show 5 and 7, UK (2000, 2010); the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Russia (2009) and the 51st and 53rd Venice Biennale, Italy (2005, 2009).

Associated Talks and Events

IMMA Talk Series / Mary Swanzy, Voyages

Curators Lecture / Seán Kissane / Mary Swanzy, Voyages
Saturday 3 November 2018, 1.00pm / Lecture Room
IMMA curator Seán Kissane discusses the major retrospective Mary Swanzy, Voyages. Mary Swanzy is arguably Ireland’s first ‘modernist’ painter and this is the first major retrospective of her work since 1968. The exhibition offers a timely review of Swanzy’s work, demonstrating her early mastery of Modernist styles, her wide travels, idiosyncratic feminism and forward-thinking ideas that makes Swanzy such a fascinating artist to explore in our times. Book here

Gallery Talk / Liz Cullinane / Swanzy’s Life and Work
Friday 7 December 2018, 1.00pm / Main Galleries, East Wing
Artist and researcher Liz Cullinane draws on her biographical investigations into Swanzy’s life long career and shares some of the most intriguing discoveries to emerge out of the artist’s own records, archives, and accounts from those closest to her. This talk explores a selection of works some of them comprising several rooms of the IMMA exhibition.

Lecture & Response / Louise Wallace
Mapping Unknown Terrain: Modernism, Gender, Space in the Paintings of Mary Swanzy
Wednesday 5 December 2018, 6.30 – 7.30pm / Lecture Room
Dr Louise Wallace, Associate Lecturer in Fine & Applied Art: Painting, Belfast School of Art, Faculty of Arts, discusses themes of gender, interior space, domesticity and women’s labour that characterize some of the most definitive works comprising of the IMMA exhibition Mary Swanzy, Voyages. This talk positions Swanzy’s oeuvre within the developments of Modernism, the cult of the flâneur and the avant-garde’s predilection for travel. Swanzy’s articulation of a particularly feminine gaze will be read alongside the contemporary concerns of female painters working today
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Curators Lunchtime Talk / Mary Swanzy, Voyages – Drop In
Wednesday 16 January 2019, 1.15 – 2.00pm / Meeting Point, Main Reception
Karen Sweeney, Exhibitions, IMMA, presents a walkthrough on the key themes and artworks featured in the major retrospective Mary Swanzy, Voyages.

Lecture & Response / Selena Daly / Futurism & Ireland, Swanzy’s Modernist Aesthetic
Saturday 19 January 2019, 2.00pm / Lecture Room
Selena Daly, social and cultural historian and Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, discusses the shaping of Swanzy’s Modernist Aesthetic from the context of her acclaimed monograph Italian Futurism and the First World War, 2016. Reflecting on Swanzy’s first-hand encounters of Futurism in Italy, Daly traces Swanzy’s Futurist’s connections, as well as the movement’s reception in Ireland, during a period when Irish society was undergoing huge social and political upheaval.

Seminar & Closing Discussion / Mary Swanzy, Voyages
Friday 8 February 2019, 2.00 – 4.30pm / Lecture Room
Examining the reception of Mary Swanzy’s work in Ireland and beyond, a panel of art writers, curators and academics come together to bridge existing art criticism with new research to emerge out of the staging of a major retrospective since the artist last exhibited in Ireland 50 years ago. This seminar / roundtable discussion delves deeper into archival materials and art contexts, to position Swanzy’s oeuvre within current discourses on Modernist art in Ireland, the place of women as artists and revolutionaries in Irish Modernism, and the role of censorship, ideology, cultural bias and displacement plays in historicising of an artist of Swanzy’s significance in Ireland. Chaired by, Dr. Róisín Kennedy, Lecturer, School of Art History and Cultural Policy, UCD, a dynamic panel of speakers will be announced shortly.

IMMA Talks Series / Wolfgang Tillmans, Rebuilding the Future

Artist Talk / Wolfgang Tillmans, Rebuilding the Future
Presented in partnership with NCAD
Saturday 20 October 2018, 3.00pm (Doors open at 2.15pm) / NCAD Rupert Guinness Theatre, D8
IMMA and NCAD are delighted to present an artist talk from internationally renowned artist Wolgang Tillmans, in advance of his much anticipated IMMA exhibition Rebuilding the Future, opening on 26 October 2018. This keynote talk from the artist will take in his most recent projects – delving deeper into the socio-political concerns that drives an expanded practice of photography, activism, publishing, performance, music and installation. Tillmans will be introduced by NCAD Director Sarah Glennie, co-curator of the IMMA exhibition.
Booking is essential. Tickets are free and can booked online here / Please take note of venue details and location here

See the IMMA website for a full programme of talks on this series. Advance booking is essential. Tickets will be available from the IMMA Talks section of our website. All talks are free but ticketed unless otherwise stated.

Supported by:

Opening on 10 August 2018, IMMA is delighted to present Sunset, Sunrise, a major retrospective of the work of prominent Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (b.1924, Qazvin, Iran). Now in her mid-nineties, this exhibition marks the first solo exhibition of Farmanfarmaian’s work in Ireland. Sunset, Sunrise offers a rare opportunity to rediscover the breathtakingly kaleidoscopic nature of Farmanfarmaian’s 1970s sculpture and to encounter drawings, jewellery and previous unseen embroidery and collages from the 1980s, alongside new pen and ink drawings, fresh from the artist’s studio in Iran. Over 70 works are on display, encompassing a multitude of artistic genres which inform the artist’s practice

Sunset Sunrise will be opened on the evening of Thursday 9 August by noted international curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of the Serpentine Galleries, London, a friend and long-time supporter of Farmanfarmaian.

On showing her work in Ireland Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian said “The Irish and the Iranians share a love of poetry in their cultures. My poetry is in my art, and I am honoured to share it in this IMMA exhibition”.

Born in Qazvin, Iran in 1924, Farmanfarmaian’s distinguished career has spanned more than six decades. The artist attended the Fine Arts College of Tehran before becoming one of the first Iranian students to study in the United States after World War II. Between 1945 and 1957 she was engulfed in this epicentre of the modern art world, and it was here that she worked alongside many iconic contemporary American artists including Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson and Andy Warhol, all of whom had an influence on her work. In 1957 she returned to Iran. She was abroad when the Islamic, or Iranian Revolution of 1979 broke out, effectively making her an exile until 1992. Returning to Iran in 2004 she is now firmly re-established in her native country and is considered one of the most important Iranian artists working today with the opening of The Monir Museum in 2017 – the first Museum in Iran dedicated to a female artist.

Rachel Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions at IMMA first discovered Farmanfarmaian’s work when she was researching for the popular IMMA exhibition As Above, So Below and goes on to say; “Monir’s pioneering approach as an Iranian artist, fuses traditional skills with contemporary sensibilities to create a truly global and timeless practice, and one that deserved a significant international retrospective. I am particularly pleased that IMMA was able to originate this new framing of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian here in Dublin, and that we will tour the exhibition to our partners in Sharjah next year”.

Encapsulating histories of both East and West, Sunset, Sunrise reflects a life lived between two cultures, as the artist’s early involvement with graphic design and experimental modern abstraction in New York City gave way to a period of intense research into traditional craftsmanship and folk art in Iran’s more remote regions. Western avant-garde principles were maintained by the artist while she delved into Persian mysticism and simultaneously evoked the socio-political Islamic landscape as well as the easily recognisable geometry of Iran’s artistic and architectural heritage. Embedded in this collision of cultures, Farmanfarmaian navigated a path to her own distinct form of rich geometric abstraction.

While Farmanfarmaian’s practice has historically been overlooked in certain contemporary art discourses, her work has proven prescient and influential for many artists working today. The exhibition at IMMA establishes Farmanfarmaian as one of the great pioneering female artists, set alongside such 20th-century innovators such as Etel Adnan, Carol Rama and Hilma af Klint, all of whom have been rediscovered for their vital contributions to the development of contemporary art, and who have been represented within group and solo exhibitions at IMMA over the last three years.

Sunset, Sunrise investigates the abundance and mystery of nature, the universe and our place within it. Presenting over 70 works the exhibition includes key works Sunrise (2015) and Sunset (2015), both created using mirror and reverse-glass painting on plaster and wood. These pieces, from which the exhibition takes its title, exemplify Farmanfarmaian’s ability to merge traditional Persian techniques with contemporary abstraction. Other works, such as Untitled (2012) and Untitled 4 (2016), are shown here for the first time. These works incorporate highly reflective materials such as mirror and glitter on paper which are in line with the artist’s use of luxurious textures such as pearls, crystals, beads and gold leaf within her wider practice. Also showing is the intimate documentary film, Monir, 2015, chronicling the life and work of the artist, directed by Bahman Kiarostami and produced by Leyla Fakhr.

Sunset, Sunrise is co-curated by Rachel Thomas (Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA) and Hoor Al Qasimi (Director, Sharjah Art Foundation). The exhibition is organised by IMMA in collaboration with Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates. The exhibition will travel to Sharjah Art Foundation in 2019.

A fully illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition, focusing on architecture, poetry and a fresh re-evaluation of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s practice. Included in the publication are Farmanfarmaian’s favourite poems joined by newly commissioned texts by Rahel Aima, Dr Tina Kinsella, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Murtaza Vali, Rachel Thomas and Hoor Al Qasimi, as well as extracts from Hans Ulrich Obrist’s previously published interviews. The publication is co-published by IMMA and Sharjah Art Foundation.

A new Limited Edition print of the work of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, titled Sunrise, will be available to purchase at the IMMA Shop.

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For more information and images please contact Monica Cullinane e: [email protected] t: + 353 1 612 9922.

Editors Notes

About the Artist
Born in Qazvin, Iran in 1924, Monir’s distinguished career has spanned more than five six decades. The artist attended the Fine Arts College of Tehran before becoming one of the first Iranian students to study in the United States after World War II. She graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1949 and then became a Member of the New York Art Students’ League (1950-53). Engulfed in the epicentre of the modern art world, it was here that she worked alongside many iconic contemporary American artists including Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson and Andy Warhol, all who had an influence on her work.

Monir has exhibited extensively in international institutions in Iran, North America and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions include a traveling retrospective, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Infinite Possibilities at the Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2014), and to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY,2015; Lineages, Savannah College of Art and Design Museum (2017); Monir Farmanfarmaian: Infinite Geometry, The Third Line, Dubai (2016); Jef Geys/Monir Farmanfarmaian, WIELS, Brussels (2013); Convertibles and Polygons, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA (2012); Geometry of Hope, Leighton House Museum, London, UK (2008); Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Mirror Mosaics, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK (2007). Her work has been included in several prominent group exhibitions including DECOR, Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium (2016); Sharjah Biennial 11 (2015); Seeing Through Light, The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection Opening exhibition, Manarat al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2015); Iran Modern at Asia Art Society, New York, USA (2013); Trade Routes, Hauser & Wirth, London, UK (2013); Contemporary Iranian Art from the Permanent Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2012); The Future of Tradition, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2010).

She has participated in four editions of the Venice Biennale, where she was awarded the Gold Medal in 1958, 1964 and 1966. She also participated in the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial at Queensland Art Gallery, Australia, and at Liquid City, the 2nd Brugge Triennial in Brugge, Belgium (2018). Monir’s work is housed in several major public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Jameel Collection, London; The Queensland Art Gallery, Australia; The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran; Swisscorp Bank, Geneva, Switzerland; The Sharjah Art Foundation; and the School of Law at Columbia University, America. Monir lives and works in Tehran.

Associated Talks and Events

Talk & Exhibition Preview / Aziz Isham – Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Sunset, Sunrise
Thursday 9 August / 6.30pm / Lecture Room / Booking advised
In conjunction with the exhibition preview of Sunset, Sunrise producer, journalist and activist Aziz Isham, grandson of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, presents an introduction to the rich cultural and artistic diversity of Farmanfarmaian’s practice over a period of 40 years. Isham’s lecture provides a personal perspective on some of the most defining movements that have shaped and influenced his grandmother’s life and work. This talk is followed by the official launch.

Curators Lunchtime Talk Series
Friday 21 September / 1.15pm – 2.00pm / Drop In
Meeting Point – IMMA Main Reception
Rachael Gilbourne, Exhibitions, IMMA, presents an insightful walkthrough of the exhibition Sunset, Sunrise.

Artist Response / Roxana Manouchehri / Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
Friday 5 October / 1.00pm / Main Galleries, West Wing / Booking advised
Artist Roxana Manouchehri reflects on the craft, skills and artistic traditions of her native country Iran, in the context of the exhibition Sunset, Sunrise. Manouchehri’s response explores the merging of traditional Persian techniques with contemporary abstraction that Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian not only pioneered but continues to influence on a subsequent generation of artists. Taking the form of an exhibition walk-through, this talk looks at geometrical patterns and its roots in mathematics, repetition and spirituality, derived from 15th century Persian architecture and decorative mirror work.

Tickets will be available from the IMMA Talks section of our website. All talks are free but ticketed unless otherwise stated.

Notably a key influence for Andrea Geyer is the American dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and writer, Yvonne Rainer, whose seminal early dance works have recently been shown at IMMA in May 2018. Head of Exhibitions at IMMA, Rachael Thomas states, “…IMMA is honoured to be working with the pioneering and influential artist Yvonne Rainer. Rainer continuously explores the body as a metaphor itself, as a site inspiration, courageously challenging political and social structures. Extending this oeuvre, we are also delighted to be exhibiting new work by Andrea Geyer, who focuses on themes of gender and memory; and how they are constantly reinterpreted against a backdrop of history and current culture. These two artists, Rainer and Geyer, reveal new pathways of understanding feminism, and are rewriting the rules of art practice.”

IMMA is delighted to present the work of world-class dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and writer Yvonne Rainer—one of the most influential artistic figures of the last 50 years – later this month. Rainer’s work has been foundational across multiple disciplines and movements including dance, cinema, feminism, minimalism, conceptual art, and postmodernism. IMMA will present a selection of Rainer’s iconic early dance and film works and will bring the legendary artist to Dublin for a historic conversation about her career.

One of Rainer’s most renowned dance pieces, Trio A with Flag (1966), will be performed live at IMMA with her works Talking Solo from Terrain (1963) and Chair/Pillow (1969). A series of talks and conversations will accompany this programme featuring, amongst others; Yvonne Rainer, Irish Choreographer and dancer Liz Roche (Liz Roche Company) and Former Director of Tate Modern and Volksbühne, Berlin – Chris Dercon  who will talk about dance and performance invading the space of the museum. A talk takes place alongside each performance with Dercon’s keynote happening a week later.

A series of screenings will also be shown at IMMA from June 2018, featuring the acclaimed film-works Lives of Performers (1972), Privilege (1990) and MURDER and Murder (1996).

In 1962, as a founding member of Judson Dance Theater, Rainer revolutionized modern dance by introducing everyday movements like walking and running into the dance lexicon. Evoking responses that are at once theoretical, political and deeply personal, Rainer’s work continues to resonate with today’s shifting world. In the words of the artist Robert Rauschenberg, “Yvonne’s multi-media expertise and her dynamic exposure has shaken the world for years. I have known her through the years of the development. To assist in the continuation is a gift to culture.”  Now in her eighties and returned to choreography, she continues to create vibrant, courageous, unpredictable dances that invite audiences to question basic assumptions about art and performance.

Endeavouring to reflect the many facets of Yvonne Rainer’s practice, IMMA presents the work of Yvonne Rainer using a cross-disciplinary approach working in association with Dublin Dance Festival; the leading dance event on the Irish arts calendar. Each year in May, the Festival brings together dance artists and choreographers from across the world to share vibrant contemporary dance with audiences in Ireland.

All of the early dance works will be taught by choreographer Pat Catterson, Yvonne Rainer’s long-time assistant, performer, and transmitter of her dance-work. The performances will feature a cast of four dancers who travelled from all over the world to avail of the opportunity to dance for Yvonne Rainer, they are Stav Bar-Nahum Frank, Ty Boomershine, Dimitrios Mytilinaios and Mary Kate Sheehan.

Performance details:
Saturday 12 May, 19:30pm – includes a pre-performance lecture by Yvonne Rainer. SOLD OUT
Sunday 13 May, 15:30pm – includes a pre-performance talk by Rachael Gilbourne (Curator, IMMA).
Sunday 13 May, 19.30pm – includes a post-performance conversation between Liz Roche (Liz Roche Company) and Rachael Thomas (Senior Curator, IMMA).

Ticket prices: €15 full price / €12.50 conc, which include complimentary O’Hara’s Irish Craft Beer after the event.
Venue: Great Hall, IMMA.

Associated Keynote Lecture on Yvonne Rainer / Chris Dercon
Friday 18 May / 1pm – 2pm / Johnston Suite / IMMA
Chris Dercon, Former Director, Tate Modern and Volksbühne Berlin, will present a keynote lecture on pioneering dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and writer Yvonne Rainer. Drawing on Rainer’s incredible 50 years practice, and her influence on a subsequent generation of practitioners, Dercon’s talk examines the various ways dance and performance is used to intervene and invade the space of the museum, exploring historic and contemporary examples that defy categorisation.

This talk offers the rare chance to hear from one of the most prolific figures working and programming contemporary art, theatre, dance and performance, today.

IMMA presents Yvonne Rainer in association with Dublin Dance Festival with the support of Project Arts Centre and Dance Ireland.
See www.imma.ie for booking all performances and talks.

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For more information, images and access to rehearsals please contact Monica Cullinane e: [email protected]  t: + 353 1 612 9922

Additional Information

About the Artist / Yvonne Rainer (b. 1934, San Francisco)
Moving from San Francisco to New York in 1956, Yvonne Rainer studied dance at the Martha Graham School, while learning ballet at Ballet Arts. By the early 1960s, she had participated in Anna Halprin’s workshops, become a protégé of John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and was fully immersed in the New York performance scene. As a founding member of the legendary Judson Dance Theater, she collaborated with many ground-breaking artists of her generation: Robert Rauschenberg, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton, Lucinda Childs, Robert Morris, and Carolee Schneemann. Rainer pursued a minimalist aesthetic, using everyday, spare pedestrian movements as seen in her masterwork Trio A (1966). Revolutionary at the time, her approach radically altered the vocabulary of dance and continues to inform contemporary artists working across disciplines today.

In the mid-1960s, Rainer began incorporating short film pieces and narrative into her dances. Her work became increasingly personal and political, and in the early 1970s she began to focus entirely on filmmaking. She went on to direct seven feature-films, each as experimental as her dance pieces, and explored themes such as political power, social exclusion, terrorism, sexuality, and illness. In 1997, retrospectives of her cinematic works were organised by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.

In 2000, after 25 years of filmmaking, Rainer returned to dance with a newly commissioned work After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, which was recognized with a Bessie Award. Since then, she has choreographed several new dance pieces such as The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there’s nothing left to move? at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2015. Rainer also developed her writing, releasing her memoir Feelings Are Facts: A Life, published by MIT Press in 2006, and a book of her poetry, Poems, released by Badlands Unlimited in 2012. Currently, she is a contributing writer to Triple Canopy. In 2014, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles presented a major retrospective of Rainer’s dances and films. Rainer is the recipient of numerous awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, three Rockefeller Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellowship, a Wexner Prize, and in 2015, the Merce Cunningham Award. She currently lives and works in New York.

10 April 2018

Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan T.D. today announced a €1.2 billion investment in the culture, heritage and language infrastructure of Ireland as part of the Government’s Project Ireland 2040. Over the period 2018 to 2027, the Government intends to invest €460m in a significant number of capital projects in our National Cultural Institutions, including IMMA.

Commenting on today’s announcement IMMA Chairman David Harvey said; “We welcome the announcement by An Taoiseach Leo Varadakar and Minsiter Madigan that a capital budget of €36 million will be made available to IMMA as part of Investing in our Culture, Language and Heritage 2018 – 2027, published yesterday by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht as part of Project Ireland 2040. High quality infrastructure is crucial for a vibrant culture sector and we look forward to actively contributing to the vision of Ireland as a creative, innovative and culturally attended society through the delivery of a world class art experience at IMMA.

Our current strategy outlines a vision for the 26 acres of IMMA as an open campus of ideas and shared knowledge, deeply embedded in its home in the historic Royal Hospital Kilmainham. A key part of this strategy is the building of a new, innovative Collections Centre at IMMA. This would not only allow IMMA to create the conditions necessary to keep the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art safe for future generations, but would also create new ways for the public to encounter this national treasure. A Collection is not just a series of physical objects but also a series of histories and relationships that represent a rich resource of knowledge for the nation. IMMA therefore defines its Collection as art works, archive and over twenty five years of programme content including talks, texts and correspondence from some of Ireland’s most important contemporary artists. If made accessible this combined knowledge holds great potential for a wide range of audiences.”

Interim Director Moling Ryan further noted; “A key capital objective of IMMA’s current strategy is the development of a new Collections Centre that will create new forms of physical and digital access to IMMA’s Collection, the Collection Archive and IMMA’s Programme Archive. Envisioned as both a new building and new online space, the Collections Centre will create a home for the Collection on IMMA’s grounds where it will provide access to the public through visible storage, media banks of digital works, accessible photographic and print collections and flexible learning spaces that will facilitate the Collection as a learning tool for all ages. This building will also house IMMA’s complete Collection and Programme Archives, creating a reflective reading and research space for the general public, students, artists and national and international researchers.

The new Collections Centre will create an extensive point of access for the IMMA Collection that will extend beyond the galleries. This access will be enhanced through a parallel programme of digitisation of IMMA’s resources that finds new ways to bring the context of art works to the public. This will be delivered through a dynamic web platform that shares art works – and the rich stories and knowledge behind those works and their artists – through innovative digital applications.

Delivering on this ambition will create a truly significant archive and history of contemporary Irish Art practice for Irish citizens, and to further the story of Irish art, and Irish artists, internationally.”

Investing in Our Culture, Language and Heritage 2018 – 2027 is a ten year plan setting out the Government’s commitment for capital investment of almost €1.2 billion in Ireland’s culture, language and heritage.  Minister Madigan was joined at a special forum to launch the plan by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, and Government Chief Whip and Minister of State for the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Joe McHugh. 

Speaking at the launch Minister Madigan said:“I am delighted to launch this historic capital investment plan in our culture, language and heritage. This level of investment will transform our cultural and heritage infrastructure right across the country.  It is also an important statement for this and future generations: our culture, language and heritage are fundamental to all of our lives.  They affect our education, our public buildings and public spaces.  They impact the relationship between the citizen and the State, and the relationship of citizens to each other.  They are about our identity and our values. Cultural infrastructure provides a home for all of us, a space for all us to meet, to exchange ideas, to create the new, to imagine what could be. With this announcement, I am delighted that we have delivered on an important pillar of the Creative Ireland Programme. ”

Read more details in the plan here>

Tuesday, 13 February, 2018: Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan T.D., was in IMMA to preview The Ethics of Scrutiny, curated by Daphne Wright, the second exhibition to be presented as part of the ground-breaking IMMA Collection: Freud Project – a five-year loan of 52 works by renowned artist Lucian Freud (1922-2011); one of the greatest painters of the 20th-century.

The Ethics of Scrutiny will be opened by Minister Madigan on the evening of Wednesday 14 February 2018 and will open to the public on Thursday 15 February at 11.30am.

In 2016 IMMA secured the loan of 50 works on a five-year loan to the IMMA Collection from a number of private lenders. The IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016 – 2021 presented all 50 works in the first year, 30 of the artist’s finest paintings alongside 20 works on paper, in a dedicated Freud Centre in IMMA’s Garden Galleries. For the second exhibition in this unique project IMMA invited visual artist Daphne Wright to curate an exhibition in response to Lucian Freud’s works. The Ethics of Scrutiny takes aspects of Freud’s intimate studio practice as a starting point to explore themes of vulnerability, longing and loss that permeate the painter’s work. Two new paintings by Lucian Freud will be exhibited at IMMA for the first time, alongside work by other artists including Emily Dickinson, Sigmund Freud, Marlene Dumas and John Berger.

The establishment of the Freud Centre in IMMA’s Garden Galleries was made possible through capital support from the Department for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht to carry out essential improvement works at the Garden Galleries in 2016.

Minister Madigan, speaking at the preview said: “The IMMA Collection: Freud Project is an outstanding resource for Ireland. Not only does it give us the opportunity to see up close the work of this incredible, world-class artist through exhibitions such as this one, but IMMA is also building a body of knowledge and interpretation of his work that will be globally relevant for the future. It is fitting that IMMA, as a National Institution for contemporary culture, are approaching this great artist’s work by inviting living artists to offer a fresh perspective on Lucian Freud. The first exhibition was visited by tens of thousands of visitors, including thousands of school-children and students around Ireland, and I am sure they will find much to inspire them again in this latest exhibition, curated by Irish artist Daphne Wright.”

The ambitious Freud Project includes exhibitions, artist residencies research partnerships, talks, lectures and other events that offer a host of ways to connect with this celebrated artist. The project has been made possible by the generosity of the lenders and the support of the Department in conjunction with support from the visionary members of the Freud Circle; BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse who have each committed to the project for a period of three years. This commitment will ensure free access for audiences every Tuesday, in addition to the customary free access for full time students and those under 18.

Over the five-years of the loan the display in the Freud Centre will change at least once a year, bringing in new works by Freud and by other artists to offer new ways of looking at, and thinking about, Lucian Freud’s work. Artist Daphne Wright describes what drew her to curating this particular exhibition: “When I was approached by IMMA to curate this show I was fascinated and pleased, but also very aware of the challenging complexities of Freud’s work. I knew I would be consumed by dealing with these, and I have been both resentful and captivated by wrestling through issues he brings related to the psychology of looking. It has been an incredibly engrossing and deeply interesting experience, particularly when I have explored the links between Freud’s practice and that of contemporary artists, writers and scientists who have influenced my own.”

Lucian Freud chose his subjects from people who entered his life through various means from the acquaintances he encountered regularly during his gambling days, to the members of his own family and inner circle of friends who all modelled within the tight constrains of his studio. In his portraits, some painted over many months or even years, we see a body of work that examines the complex relationships between an artist and their sitter or, more broadly, we see paintings that deal with the psychology of looking.

Taking these specific aspects of Freud’s intimate and insular studio practice as a starting point, The Ethics of Scrutiny explores themes of vulnerability, longing and loss that permeate the painter’s work, while also looking to the works of other artists who address on a wider scale the complexities of representation. Placing Freud’s paintings alongside the work of writers Emily Dickinson, John Berger and Lydia Davis, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and artists Gwen John, Kathy Prendergast, Wiebke Siem, Marlene Dumas and Thomas Schütte, The Ethics of Scrutiny calls into question how we see ourselves, how our gazes fall onto one another, and importantly how our identities shift over the cycle of time. The exhibition also sees the addition of two major works by Freud, Two Brothers from Ulster, 2001, and Man in a Silver Suit, 1998.

IMMA’s Head of Collections Christina Kennedy said: “The intention of the five year IMMA Collection: Freud Project is to explore Lucian Freud’s processes and motivations and how they link to contemporary life, both within and beyond the art context. We are delighted that Daphne Wright accepted our invitation to curate this exhibition. Daphne’s own work is renowned for the manner in which it excavates the emotional archaeology that lies beneath the surface of everyday life and relationships; the tension between the appearance of things and what they reveal on closer inspection. With The Ethics of Scrutiny Wright has selected material by artists, writers, scientists and others which she has interwoven among Freud’s paintings to great effect, exploring the human psyche and the challenges of its representation. Throughout the exhibition she probes Lucian Freud the artist, the times he lived in, the impact of his own life story on his work and what drove him to paint as he did.”

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For further information and installation images please contact
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T:+353 (0)1 612 9922

For Freud images please contact John Moelwyn-Hughes, Bridgeman Images, London
E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7727 4065

Additional Notes for Editors
The exhibition will be formally opened by Minister Josepha Madigan T.D. on Wednesday 14 February at 6.00pm (invitation only event). The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday 15 February at 11.30am.

Admission for this exhibition is €8/5 (concession) with free admission for IMMA Members, full-time students and under 18’s. There will be free admission for all every Tuesday. Monies raised through admission charges will directly contribute to the care and development of the IMMA Collection. Due to the number and delicate nature of the works and the limited circulation space of the historic Garden Galleries, admission will be by timed entry. To avoid disappointment please pre-book your preferred time-slot online in advance of visiting. Online booking will be available from Wednesday 14 February.

The exhibition made possible by the Freud Circle – BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse – and those donors who wish to remain anonymous.

About the curator
Daphne Wright, born 1963, Ireland, is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London, and was elected as a member of the Aosdána, in 2011. She lives and works in Dublin and Bristol. Wright’s work manoeuvres things into well-wrought but delicate doubt – shifting between taughtness and mess, it sets imagery, materials and language in constant metaphorical motion. Using a wide range of materials – plaster, tinfoil, video, printmaking, found objects and performance – she creates worlds that are beautiful and rather eerie which feel like the threshold to somewhere new.

Wright has exhibited extensively in England and Ireland since 1994, with solo exhibitions at many venues including, Emotional Archaeology, R.H.A Gallery, Dublin, 2017 and The Arnolfini, Bristol, 2016, Where Do Broken Hearts Go, Douglas Hyde Gallery, 2002, Nonsense with Death, Sligo Art Gallery, 2001, and Daphne Wright, Limerick City Art Gallery, 2006, Cornerhouse, Manchester, 1994, The New Art Centre Sculpture Park and Gallery and The Lowry, 2001. She has also participated in various group exhibitions at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2008, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2000, P.S.1, New York, 1999, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1997, and Tate Liverpool, 1995. Commissions include Ham House, Trust New Art, Hanbury House, Worcester and Carlow County Council, South Tipperary County Council and Cork City Council.

Works by the artist are held in the following collections: Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Towner Art Gallery, Sussex and private collections in Ireland and the UK.

About Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud was born in Berlin to Ernst, the architect son of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his wife Lucie Brasch. In 1933, age ten, Freud fled with his family to England, ahead of the rise of Nazism. The family settled in London where Freud lived for the rest of his life.

Freud studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London and Cedric Morris’s East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham. His first solo exhibition, at the Lefevre Gallery received critical acclaim in 1944, followed by a number of hallucinatory, finely-painted portraits that marked him as an artist to watch.  Freud’s adherence to realism and focus on the human figure, when abstraction and other progressive forms of practice were more prolific, moved him in and out of the spotlight until the 1980’s when renewed international interest in painting and figuration gave his work a new significance. Since then Freud has become one of the best-known and most highly-regarded British artists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Companion of Honour and the Order of Merit. Major retrospectives of his work were held in Tate Britain, 2002, IMMA 2007, MOMA, 2008 and the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2012.

Freud visited Dublin and Connemara in Ireland in the late 1940s, partly on a pilgrimage to Jack B. Yeats whom he considered the greatest living painter and later when married to Caroline Blackwood of the Guinness family. From the 1950s he connected with Irish artists such as Patrick Swift whose Dublin studio he used and Edward McGuire whose tutor he was at the Slade Art School, as well as the literary circle of Patrick Kavanagh, John Montague, Brendan Behan, Anthony Cronin and their Soho milieu.  An in depth account of Freud and Ireland will be explored through the Freud Project, including his close links with the other great figurative painter of the 20th century, Irish-born and London-based, Francis Bacon – his friend, mentor and great rival of thirty years and whose studio you can visit in Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane.

Associated Talks and Events

Lucian Freud Lecture Series
IMMA is presenting a Lucian Freud Lecture Series in collaboration with The Irish Art Research Centre, Trinity College, Dublin (TRIARC). IMMA and TRIARC have invited leading artists, critics and cultural researchers to offer new perspectives on Freud’s work from October 2017 to April 2018, concluding with a major symposium in April 2018. The next lecture in the series is a keynote lecture by Isabelle Graw, Professor, Städelschule, Frankfurt on 7 March 2018.

International Symposium
Rethinking Freud: Contemporary Perspectives
13 and 14 April 2018
IMMA builds on longstanding partnerships and develop new ones with colleges and universities, this symposium explores the themes, methods, motivations, milieu and multifaceted contexts of this important artist’s work in terms of contemporary art practice. The symposium takes its cue from several exhibitions themes comprising IMMA Collection: Freud Project, The Ethics of Scrutiny,

Speakers will present their research on the role of painting in art today; the anthropological and ethnographic content that Freud’s work elicits and revisit the critique of Freud’s art, in the context of his relationship with Ireland and Irish Modernism. Amongst the speakers taking part are: Catherine Lampert, Curator and Leading Specialist advisor on Freud’s work and former Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Elena Crippa, Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain; Brian Dillon,  writer, critic, and UK editor of Cabinet magazine and Head of Programme, Critical Writing in Art & Design, Royal College London; Daphne Wright, Artist and curator of The Ethics of Scrutiny; Angela Griffith, (TRIARC) TCD; as well as contemporary artists taking part on the IMMA Freud Residency.

Programmed in association with (TRIARC) TCD. Tickets are €8 and will be available to purchase at www.imma.ie

Curator Lunchtime Talk
Friday 20 April / 1.15 – 2pm / Drop-in / Meeting Point – IMMA Main Reception
Join curator Johanne Mullan for an insightful walkthrough of The Ethics of Scrutiny to hear more about the key themes and artworks featured. Each tour is free of charge. No need to book in advance, just come to the Meeting Point in IMMA Reception

Additional talks and events will be announced throughout the Freud Project. See www.imma.ie for the most up to date events and for booking.

IMMA Collection: Freud Project is made possible through the visionary support of the Freud Circle listed below, and those donors that wish to remain anonymous.

The exhibition is supported by

Opening on 26 January 2017, IMMA presents War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings, a new series of work by Irish artist Brian Maguire. The paintings are a result of Maguire’s observations and photographs of the destruction caused by the struggle for control of the eastern and central areas of Aleppo, Syria.

An earlier exhibition, Over Our Heads the Hollow Seas Closed Up, (Kerlin, 2016), examined the refugee crisis then hitting Europe’s shores. As reflected in the both exhibitions, Maguire sees the war in Syria and the refugee crisis as being intricately linked. Taken collectively then, these exhibitions bear stark witness to the destruction of a city, and the human displacement caused by such destruction; manifested in the waves of Syrian refugees crossing into Europe.

As with all Maguire’s work, this exhibition emerges from a considered engagement with the political and social complexities of place and people. In 2016 Maguire travelled with Paris based artist John Lawler though France Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Austria. Visiting many of the cities across the overland journey from Greece to Germany; a route familiar to so many Syrian refugees. In March 2017 he then travelled to the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo with Colm Laighneach. While in Aleppo Maguire engaged with the remaining local population and was struck by the fact that life there had persevered throughout the war, and in its aftermath was beginning to re-emerge. The research done by Maguire involves more than photography; he also undertook workshops with children affected by the conflict and talked to people living and working there about their experiences of living at war and under siege.

The resulting exhibition includes new, previously unexhibited works. All sharing the title Aleppo, these new paintings are made in a washed-out palette of browns, greys and blues, with the occasional small burst of colour. The uniformity of colour reflects the wiping out of detail and design caused by widespread destruction of the city’s architecture, and the seeming total removal of life from these streets. Rather than a vibrant colourful city, one of the oldest in the world, the viewer is left looking at a place that has been stripped of identity, as well as physically destroyed. The paintings call to mind a stage set, empty after the spectacle of war. The occasional small burst of colour speaks to the unquenchable urge for life to continue, even among the most unpromising of settings.

The exhibition title – War Changes Its Address – speaks to the never-ending cycle of war, constantly ongoing somewhere in the world, perpetuated for profit and power, at the expense of communities, countries and human lives. Maguire works partly in Paris, which plays host to a global armament fair in which heavy-duty weapons are presented in the manner of luxury goods; clean, well-designed, desirable. Maguire’s concern is that war is perpetuated by the global arms trade, indifferent to the suffering caused by their commerce and industry, the constant victim being the global poor, unrepresented in the media, and unseen by the majority of people in the West.  Fuelled by a desire to see beyond the news coverage to gain a personal insight into the reality of the situation, Maguire’s Aleppo paintings document the ruined buildings of the city, offering a visceral and stark insight into the physical consequences of war.

A full programme of talks and associated events will accompany this exhibition and explore the inherent themes in more detail, with contributions from Brian Maguire, Sarah Glennie, Ghiat Ibraheem, Paddy Woodsworth, Colm Laighneach, Ben Stafford, Lara Marlowe, Elisa Perriguer, Ed Vulliamy and many others.

Brian Maguire, War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings is presented in the Courtyard Galleries at IMMA from 26 January – 6 May 2018. The exhibition is co-curated by Sarah Glennie, Director, NCAD and Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA. Admission is free.

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For more information and images please contact [email protected] + 353 1 612 9920

Supported By