Exploring a New Donation celebrates the most recent gift of 25 works by the Bank of Ireland to IMMA’s Permanent Collection, a Heritage Gift under Section 1003 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997.  This is the second donation to date by the Bank of Ireland, who also donated 21 works by leading Irish artists in 1999.

The gift includes major works from the period 1940 to 1969 by artists such as Jack B Yeats, Gerard Dillon, Paul Henry, Derek Hill, Louis le Brocquy, Sean McSweeney, Patrick Scott, William Scott, Camille Souter, Robert Ballagh and others. The Bank of Ireland began its Collection in the 1970s, and went on to create one of the first comprehensive corporate collections to be initiated in Ireland. The importance of the Collection lies in the quality of the individual works, but it also carries unique cultural significance as an important composite collection created during a period of regeneration of visual arts and culture in Ireland. The works have a strong Irish dimension, of the 15 artists represented in this donation 12 are from Ireland or have been long-term residents.

This exhibition acknowledges this gift and seeks to reflect on it in the context of IMMA’s existing Collection, investigating affinities and new perspectives between period and contemporary works.  An outstanding late Jack B Yeats painting, Eileen Aroon, 1953, enhances IMMA’s existing collection of Yeats paintings from the 1940s onwards, a number of which are included in this exhibition, along with two fine early canvases. The donation also includes three watercolours by Austrian Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka with whom Yeats was acquainted and presents a rare opportunity to view the works of the two artists in proximity.

Yeats’ highly personal interpretation of the Irish landscape and its people, resonated with other artists of the period, including Paul Henry and, to a lesser extent, the younger Gerard Dillon. The exhibition also explores diverse considerations of the Irish landscape by such artists as Derek Hill, Patrick Scott, Sean McSweeney and Camille Souter as well as through lens based works by Michael Craig-Martin and Willie Doherty. Two William Scott works, Berlin Blues I and Berlin Blues II, of 1965 and 1969, are shown alongside a new loan to the IMMA Collection by George McClelland from the same period, Blue Still Life, 1969-70.

To view the list of works in the exhibition please download the document below.