To celebrate 50 years of the Contemporary Irish Art Society, IMMA is joining forces with the Society to present an important exhibition of artworks from their acclaimed collection. Comprising some 100 works, it is being selected from the Society’s purchases and the private collections of its members. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see some of the very best of Irish art, including works by such leading Irish artists as Louis le Brocquy, Robert Ballagh, Brian Bourke, Patrick Collins, Barrie Cooke, Patrick Scott, Tony O’Malley and Micheal Farrell amongst others. The CIAS was founded in 1962, when its purpose was to encourage a greater level of patronage of living Irish artists, which at the time was extremely low. This was mainly achieved by raising funds to purchase artworks by living artists, which were then donated to public collections. The Society has continued to support Irish artists through the purchase and donation of artworks to institutions throughout Ireland. Today, the Society is an important force in contemporary visual arts culture in Ireland.
List Art Center, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; and the San Francisco MOMA. Her work is included in the collections of IMMA, the Norton Collection, Santa Monica; Art Pace Foundation, Texas; the Goldman Sachs Collection, London; and the Tate Collection, London, among others.
The exhibition is curated by Catherine Marshall, Senior Curator: Head of Collections, IMMA, and Professor Campbell Bruce, Chairman, CIAS.
The exhibition is generously sponsored by Anglo Irish Bank, H & K International and KPMG.
A publication, with a foreword by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA and essays by Aidan Dunne, art critic, The Irish Times, Catherine Marshall and Professor Campbell Bruce, accompanies the exhibition.
Please click on the following link to download the essay from the catalogue by Aidan Dunne:
An Alternative History of Contemporary Irish Art by Aidan Dunne (Word doc 2000 – 26KB)
Related Links
Contemporary Irish Art Society website http://www.ciasnews.com/
Press Release