First testimonies
Ireland welcomes its first occupants around 6000 BC. It is necessary to wait a little more to find the first stone sculptures. North of Dublin, the petroglyphs of the Newgrange site are dated to 3000 BC. The engravings encircling the mound are interpreted as the first map of the moon.
During the Iron Age, the production of tools and weapons was strongly influenced by the arrival of the Celts. A people of goldsmiths and blacksmiths, they brought the famous Celtic designs: the spiral, the interlacing and the cross. These three motifs will inspire the whole history of Irish visual art. Because of its remote location, Ireland escaped the colonization of Rome. Thus, the Celtic culture persists through its motifs, its oral tradition and its mythology.
Christian Era
After the fall of the Roman Empire, while Europe was getting bogged down, the religious authorities chose Ireland as a base for spreading Christianity. Thus, around 450, Saint Patrick was sent as a missionary. His success led to the Christianization of Ireland. The creation of centers of religious and secular scholarship, in monasteries, set the stage for the development of Irish visual art. In these centers, illuminated manuscripts reached excellence. Christian calligraphy meets Celtic art magnificently. On the ornate panels, animals intertwine in Celtic patterns, among spirals, faces, and gold and silver chasing. The monasteries played a crucial role in cultural life until the 13th century.
Irish Renaissance
After five centuries of decline, the pictorial Renaissance took place from 1650 to 1830.
In the 18th century, a century of prosperity, the first artistic institutions were established: the Royal Dublin Society (1731) and the Royal Irish Academy (1785). A few talented painters emerged in the field of portraiture and landscape.
If most of the portraitists are anonymous, a few names have come down to us: Garret Morphy, Thomas Bate and the master of the genre, Charles Jervas. A great traveler, Jervas painted portraits of the crowned heads of Europe, inspired by the Italian masters. The next generation, represented by James Barry, Martin Archer Shee and William Mulready, tended to make their careers in England.
The portrait gallery of the National Gallery of Ireland was formed in 1875. Sculptures, paintings, engravings, drawings and photographs, all the Irish people who marked the 19th and 20th centuries are represented.
Susanna Drury (1698-1770) radically changed the way we look at the landscape. Her detailed gouaches of the Irish moors brought her international recognition. The landscape painters John Butts (1728-1764), George Barret Senior (ca. 1730-1784) and the romantic Thomas Sautelle Roberts (ca. 1749-1778) followed her lead. The landscape school of the Brocas family, Henry Brocas Senior (ca. 1766-1838) and his sons, exerted considerable influence.
Beginning of the modern era
Irish artists of the 19th century emigrated en masse. London attracts for its growing market, its places of creation and exhibition. The sculptors Patrick MacDowell, John Foley and John Hughes had a successful career there. Some painters preferred to go to France, Barbizon or Pont-Aven, where they learned the Impressionist way.
Two events marked the beginning of the 20th century: the creation in 1908 of the Dublin City Gallery - The Hugh Lane, a modern art gallery, and the independence of the Irish state which took shape in the early 1920s. However, pictorial innovation was not yet in evidence. Commissions for traditional busts occupied the main sculptors. The 1940s were dominated by the conservatism of the Royal Hibernian Academy, which was resistant to innovative trends. For four decades, the economic and political situation of the country slowed down the cultural dynamism. However, in the mid-1960s, the country began to open up internationally.
In the 1990s, the increase in the budget allocated to the arts changed the situation. In 1990, theIrish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) took over from the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Over the last two decades, Irish artists have made their mark on the contemporary art market. Six painters have broken the million euro barrier. In 2014, Francis Bacon's triptych, Three Studies by Lucian Freud became the most expensive work ever sold at auction (105 million euros).
Francis Bacon (1909-1992)
Figurative painter born in Dublin of English parents, he did not follow a classical schooling because of his fragile health and his excessive shyness. Private teachers taught him drawing and painting at home. At the age of twenty, wealthy men took him under their wing. Bacon was first noticed for his drawings of furniture and carpets, without however turning away from painting and his master, Picasso. He drew his inspiration in particular from the Spanish master's Les Baigneuses and Le Baiser. Surrealism also marked his early years. He sold his first oil on canvas in 1933, the Crucifixion. The following year, he presented his first solo exhibition at the Transition Gallery. At that time, he destroyed many of his works and painted little until 1944 when he intensely revived his art. His compositions, of a sensual expressionism, became more tortured and violent. His figures suffer in a captivating chaos, caught in swirls of sharp and carnal colors. Three Studies on the Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion was first exhibited in 1945. This work prefigures the characteristics of the style that made Bacon famous. Distortions, open mouth, triptych composition. The following year, he painted the famous Painting in which a meat carcass can be seen, a reminder of the young Bacon's fascination with butcher shops. His works met with success abroad. In 1953, he had his first solo exhibition in New York. During this decade, Bacon created 45 variations of Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X. In the 1960s, the Bacon retrospective organized by the London Tate Gallery travels through Europe. Bacon died of a heart attack in 1992 in Madrid. The entire mess of his London studio - Francis Bacon's Studio - is bequeathed to the Dublin City Gallery - The Hugh Lane. The Hugh Lane also houses French impressionists (Monet, Degas, Renoir, Corot, Manet, Millet, Puvis de Chavannes) as well as Irish artists: Roderic O'Conor, Walter Osborne, Frank O'Meara and John Lavery.
Photography
Born in Dublin in 1946, John Minihan won a photography contest at the age of 15. His portraits and landscapes quickly made his reputation. A friend of Samuel Beckett, he immortalized the smiling writer, an image that will remain the one that everyone remembers. He took portraits of the leading personalities of his time: Francis Bacon, Edna O'Brien, Lady Diana and Jimi Hendrix. With a similar talent, he captures elements of the Irish landscape, sublimating each subject for half a century.
In 2016, the photo of a potato on a black background, taken by Irishman Kevin Abosch was sold for 1 million euros. It thus enters the clan of the 20 most expensive photos in history. Born in 1969, Kevin Abosch is also known for his close-ups of celebrities on a black background. Johnny and Yoko Ono posed for him. With the same background and the same framing, he immortalizes a piece of coal, a vegetable, a machine or a turkey carcass. Also a conceptual artist, Abosch has exhibited all over the world, including at IMMA, the Jeu de Paume in Paris, and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Contemporary art in Dublin
The municipality invests like never before in the promotion of today's artists. Where to meet the current scene? First of all by strolling in the streets. Then, some places have been selected to guide you.
In Dublin, street art has been growing in popularity in recent years. The facades of the Camden Street district are witnesses of it. The practice is getting organized and officialized. The association Evolve Urban Art ensures the link between the community and the artists through street art projects. Among the realizations that they directed, the fifteen frescos executed in the area of the Guinness Museum. The artist Maser was already painting on the walls of Dublin in 1995, when the practice was still underground. His works proclaim loud and clear his political commitments. Another spirit, a collective, hidden under the name of Subset, rages in large format in the streets. For the feminine touch, Anna Doran enlivens this mostly male scene with her original designs. Her colorful creations run along sidewalks and walls. Now look out for works by Solus, Fitan Switzer, El Viz, Joe Caslin and James Earley!
TheIrish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA ) is the nation's premier institution for contemporary art. IMMA's collection includes modern and contemporary art by Irish and international artists.
The venerable Royal Hibernian Academy has undergone significant changes since its founding in 1823. It now promotes traditional and innovative visual arts in its five galleries.
Fringe Lab brings together live art, meeting places and exhibition spaces. Its primary mission is to support emerging artists. The crucible of tomorrow's stars! Another space dedicated to emerging creation, The Lab combines all artistic fields. Located in the historic district of Monto, it organizes all types of events, including temporary exhibitions.
The iconic Green on Red Gallery has been exhibiting the most innovative contemporary art from here and abroad since 1992, including Gerard Byrne, Damien Flood and Nigel Rolfe. It can be found at the VUE Art Fair in Dublin, the big event of the fall!
