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20 October – 20 February 2011, West Wing, Ground Floor Galleries
20 October – 9 January 2011, East Wing Galleries
20 October – 25 March 2011, West Wing, First Floor Galleries
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of IMMA’s foundation in 2011 the Museum is presenting The Moderns, a major exhibition from its Collection which occupies almost the entire Museum. The Moderns is Part I of a two part survey, with Part II taking place from June to November 2011. While The Moderns looks at the key artistic events and developments from the beginning of the 20th century until the 1970s, Part II will investigate Irish and international practice from the 1970s to the present day, reflecting the growth and development of the IMMA Collection and the increased internationalism of Irish art practice.
The Moderns primes focus is on works from the Museum’s Collection. Also included are key works chosen from public and private collections, which help form the contextual and historic spine of The Moderns. There will be approximately 100 artists and 250 works. The exhibition will be a chronological survey of the most experimental and innovative developments in Irish art from the opening decades of the 20th-century through to the 1970s. For the first time, The Moderns will provide an exploration of the art of the period in the context of the broader culture of the day, tracing the interconnections and affinities across diverse art forms including photography, architecture, design, literature, film and modern musical composition, in order to reveal a deeper and richer understanding of the art of the period.
Although IMMA’s Collection mainly dates from the 1940s onwards, The Moderns begins in the opening decades of the 20th-century when European Modernism was introduced to Ireland through such pioneering figures as Mary Swanzy, May Guinness, Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone and others. It examines the art and influence of the leading Irish Modernists and investigates possible affinities with other more long-term cultural emigres such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. The exhibition brings together the visionary West of Ireland paintings of Paul and Grace Henry with the turn-of-the-century writings and photographs of J M Synge of the Aran Islands which were so inspirational to the Henrys.
Jack B. Yeats occupies a unique place as a Modernist in that he independently evolved a personal vision of Irish culture that embodied an exhilerating use of paint to create abstracted images which convey fantasy and the everyday, the universal theme of the loneliness of the individual, as well as the psycological tension of the artistic process itself. Also included are works by the White Stag artists including Kenneth Hall and Basil Rackoczi who came to Ireland to escape the 2nd World War, bringing with them the influence of Picasso and Gris and especially Surrealism.
The Moderns also looks at the emergence of the distinctive Northern group of artists in the 1940s and ‘50s which included John Luke, Colin Middleton, Gerard Dillon, Dan O’Neill and others, as well as FE McWilliam who is renowned for his contribution to Surrealist sculpture. Louis le Brocquy’s existential vision through the 1950s and ‘60s is considered in the context of post-war British art and the artist’s friendship with Francis Bacon and collaborations with Samuel Beckett. William Scott’s international reputation from the 1960s as a leading exponent of abstract painting is examined, as is the work of Camille Souter, Patrick Collins, Sean McSweeney, Tony O’Malley, Barrie Cooke, Basil Blackshaw and Patrick Scott.
The emergence of Conceptual art among Irish artists during the 1960s and ‘70s is represented by artists including James Coleman who was based in Milan during this period and by Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland who left Ireland in 1957 for the US and was one of the pioneering figures of Conceptual art in New York. The Moderns explores their work from this time as well as early conceptual pieces by Barry Flanagan. It also includes works in the Collection from the period by non-Irish artists such as Joseph Kosuth, Laurence Weiner, Dennis Oppenheim, Joachim Gerz and others. Thanks to the philanthropy of one of the leading Irish collectors of the day, Gordon Lambert, the IMMA Collection includes a significant represention of Op and Kinetic art from this period. Abstraction of the 1960s and ‘70s is well represented by artists such as Cecil King, Gerda Fromel, Deborah Brown and John Burke, while the Pop Art aesthetic is engaged with in some of the strongest political works of the period by Robert Ballagh and Michael Farrell.
The exhibition is accompanied by a selection of critically acclaimed musical compositions of the period by composers including Frederick May, Seán Ó Riada, Seoirse Bodley, Raymond Deane, Gerald Barry and others. There will also be programming collaborations on and off site with the Irish Film Institute and the Gallery of Photography.
The exhibition is supported by The Irish Times and RTÉ Supporting the Arts.
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