ON REFLECTION — Modern Irish Art 1960s-1990s: a selection from the Bank of Ireland Art Collection

essay by Aidan Dunne

ISBN 978 0948037 238     84 pages (paperback)     22.5x21 cm     67 illus   artists index

 
Forty of Ireland’s finest artists are featured in this book, which is a selection of 54 works from one of the most important and serious art collections in the country. It is particularly strong in Irish art of the third quarter of the twentieth century – a pivotal period for Irish art, when Modernism and hard-edge painting challenged the insular Romanticism of previous decades. The foreword is by the curator Peter Murray, and the essay by art writer Aidan Dunne.

EXTRACT

"Considering the quality of the Bank of Ireland’s collection, it is clear that the corporate patronage of contemporary art forty years ago was carefully considered and well organised. The lack of cash in the economy in the 1950s also had the advantage of inhibiting some of the more startling displays of the present age. Because money was scarce, it had to be spent carefully. For these reasons, the Bank of Ireland art collection is as serious and important as that of any museum in Ireland. Assembled initially by Ronnie Tallon, and later by Neil Monahan, it is particularly strong in Irish art of the third quarter of the twentieth century – a key period, when Modernism and hard-edge painting challenged the insular Romanticism of Patrick Collins and Daniel O’Neill. Among the new bloods, Robert Ballagh and Micheal Farrell adapted strands of the International movement to serve their own local and national concerns. While Ballagh and Farrell remained, for the most part, figurative, Cecil King, Patrick Scott and Evin Nolan confidently explored the vocabulary of Minimalist and hard-edged abstraction. Many of the artists represented in this exhibition still flourish today, including Louis le Brocquy who remains an august and serene presence in Irish art, with his precise balance of formalism and inspired romanticism. Among the younger generation, Eilís O’Connell creates outstanding public-sculpture works, while Tim Goulding and Charles Tyrrell still fly the flag for the contemporary visual arts."

— from the foreword by Peter Murray