Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on the 16th century artist, Lavinia Fontana. The curator of the current exhibition on the artist at the National Gallery Ireland, Aoife Brady, explained how the show had been inspired by the conservation of their own picture “Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon” from 1599. She also took us though a long list of firsts for Fontana from being the first female professional artists to work outside a convent or court to being the fist female artist to paint female nudes. She then led us through the five rooms of the show explaining the themes and introducing us to some of the main paintings that had been used.   I had been lucky enough to go to the show when I was in Dublin recently and this talk was a lovely reminder of what I had seen and a good way to learn a bit more about the artist.

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland of work in pastel from the collection. The show was well explained and nicely displayed although the light reflecting on the display cases was distracting. It looked in detail at two artists, the Irish Hugh Douglas Hamilton, and Italian Rosalba Carriera, but also showed a lot of other work including a Degas. Evidently half the pastel works they own were in this exhibition. Closed 5 June 2023

Grand exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland of new work by Hughie O’Donoghue. The works were shown in a beautiful room called the Shaw Room and hung with Daniel Maclise’s monumental “The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife” which they respond to. The works are six large wall hangings fitting the space exactly, made in mixed media on tarpaulin. They show six figures, three British and three Irish, who had contributed to the story of their countries. They included two Saxon era figures, a saint and a king, two Norman era ones and two 20th century, Emily Davidson and Michael Collins. Each came with a good explanation of the person.   The works worked like tapestries in sepia colours incorporating a staged photograph of the person and images relating to them. I found them beautiful in their own right but also enhanced by the space they were down in. I’d love to see how they work in other spaces. Closed 21 May 2023

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland of a recently restored altarpiece for the Irish saint St Dymphna. The triptych, in eight panels, is owned by the Phoebus Foundation in Belgium and tells the story   Dymphna, a legendary 6th or 7th century Irish saint was the daughter of a Celtic king with quite a complex story. The work is by Goossen van der Weyden, grandson of the famous Roger, and all the panels were shown at eye level so you could really appreciate the details. At some point in the story Dymphna fled Ireland with her jester and his wife and I loved the depiction of them. There was an excellent video with told the saints story and the story of the altarpiece itself. It also told the story of Geel in Belgium the town where where Dymphna was martyred with her confessor. As she is the patron saint of mental illness it became a centre for its healing and it remains so today with patients being supported in the homes of families. Closed 28 May 2023 ...

Beautiful installation at the National Gallery of Ireland by James Coleman. The work is silent, large-scale projection of an uprooted poppy against a black background shown in a dark room. It looked fantastic in the space but as there was no explanation I’m not too sure if it was about anything other than being a stunning photograph. I was interested to see that it has been purchased by the gallery. Closes 8 October 2023

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland of archive material about six artists of the Irish Revolutionary period. The artists were Grace Gifford, Sarah Cecilia Harrison, Aloysius O’Kelly, William Orpen, Sarah Purse and Jack Yeats. Each had a biography on the wall highlighting what happened to them in those years and a display case of archive material. It introduced me to some new artists who I will continue to look out for. It would have been nice to have added examples of their work but I guess those were in the main gallery. There was a sister show in the same gallery “Momento Civitatem: Alice Maher and Jamie Murphy” responding to the archives of the same artists. They had produced a artist book built around 21 Tarot cards and words which left them open to interpretation. It was as interesting idea but I didn’t really understand the link to the artists. I suspect you needed to know their work well. Closes 17 September 2023  

Delightful exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland looking at the 16th century artist Lavinia Fontana. I’d read about this exhibition in the press but didn’t think I’d get to it but was delighted to find it would just have opened when I was in Dublin. I’d learnt about Fontana in various lectures but hadn’t seen much of her work in the flesh. The show was clearly set out in themed rooms which also worked chronologically. Her early work was portraits of men, mainly scholars, then she moved on the paint the elite ladies of Bologna. I loved the latter portraits whose clothing she painted beautifully. I wasn’t as convinced by her mythological, allegorical and religious work. For me they worked best when they included portraits. It was an exhibition of firsts. She was the first woman to paint professionally outside of a convent or court, the first woman from whom we have attributed drawings, first woman to have a workshop under her and first woman to paint female nudes. I’m ...

Exhibition at National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin of watercolours by William Evans of Eton done in 1838 on tour of Ireland. The pictures capture an isolated by heavily populated area just before the potato famine. They were gentle pictures giving a detailed vision of a time and a place. They were shown alongside contemporary work by Wendy Judge which explored the difference between authentic and armchair travel. A couple of these were interesting sculptures of rock formation made to be viewed from a particular angel to give them depth.

Innovative exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin looking at painting without colour. It touched on Grisaille, painting in monochrome used to create sculptural forms and the effect of grey weather and had a good cross section of artists including Rembrandt, Millet, Constable, Orpen and Mantegna. There were two contrasting pictures of women asleep. A very sensual Goya and a very cool detached picture by Dod Proctor. I loved an illusionary plaque by Pieter Jan Balthazar de Gree which was so realistic you wanted to touch it. This was a really nice idea for an exhibition.

Small exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin looking at place sought out by visitors to Ireland over the last 300 years. It included illustrations for guidebooks and the commentaries compared the places then and now. I liked a picture of Londonderry by Andrew Nicholl with a bank of flowers in the foreground and a picture of the Customs House   in Dublin by James Malton from 1793 which made it look almost Venetian.

Exhibition of illustrations by Irish artist Harry Clarke for an edition of Hans Christian Andersen in 1916 at the National Gallery of Ireland . These works reminded me of Klimpt as they were very dense with pattern, placing highly decorative clothes, furniture and backgrounds against each other. The best example of this was “The Garden of Paradise”. The exhibition also included some Beardsley like pictures for “The Rape of the Lock”.

Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland of 40 drawings from their collection spanning the 15th to the 19th centuries. The exhibition celebrated draftsmanship and examined the different reasons for doing drawings from studies for paintings to pictures in their own right. My favourite was copied from a fresco by Guilio Romano and was basically a study of horses bottoms although entitled “Apollo in his chariot”!