Choosing a country's artworks for Europeana 280: Ireland

In this blog series, Europeana 280’s Exhibition Coordinator Ann Maher has been highlighting different national nominations, and finding out a bit more about some of the choices. Here, Ann looks at the fascinating nominations from Ireland.

Ireland’s selection for Europeana 280 is the most contemporary choice of all countries nominating treasures for the campaign. It includes a wide range of work in different media from living artists of the 21st century as well as those breaking away from the artistic status quo of the 1920s. The choice was made by the institutions themselves and coordinated by the Department of Culture.

A family affair

The Brocas family of artists – two brothers and their four sons - flourished in Dublin in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Ha'penny Bridge Dublin (1818) by SF (Samuel Frederick) Brocas, is a selection from the National Library of Ireland and depicts a famous landmark, the cast iron footbridge crossing the Liffey, built in 1816. The National Library holds an extensive archive of artistic work by all six members of the family.

The Ha'Penny Bridge Dublin (1818), Samuel Frederick Brocas, National Library of Ireland, PDM

Development of Irish modernism

In the first part of the 20th century, there were tensions between the conservative art establishment and proponents of newer European developments in art (e.g. Cubism). Irish artist Mainie Jellett trained at the Metropolitan school in Dublin and then at the Westminster School of Art in London with Walter Sickert, along with Evie Hone. In 1921, they moved to Paris to train with cubist painters André Lhote and Albert Gleizes.

Jellett first exhibited her non-figurative work in Ireland in 1923 to much criticism but continued to act as an advocate for abstraction. Four Element Composition, painted around 1930, is a selection from the Irish Museum of Modern Art. In 1943, Jellett played a central role in the establishment of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and is considered a doyenne of Irish Modernism.

The avant-garde White Stag Group, originally formed in London, were another group encouraging a move from academicism to modernism and influenced artists such as Patrick Scott. He studied architecture, worked as a graphic designer and while still a student, exhibited with the group. Meditation Painting 28 (2007), also from the IMMA, encourages the viewer to contemplate the link between the physical and metaphysical world. According to the museum: “Scott's love of gold ground was fostered on journeys to Venice and Ravenna in the late 1950s and early 1960s.”

Challenging nature

The work of contemporary Irish women artists such as Dorothy Cross and Alice Maher are well established within international art circuits. In the 1990s, Maher worked with natural materials such as bees, nettles, berries and hair to create surreal works that appear like enchanted objects from a medieval folk tale. Berry Dress (1994), presents the delicate shape of a child's dress, decorated with berries, but on closer inspection, it loses its innocence, taking on a more sinister appeal. The pins holding the berries in place are arranged internally: should the dress be worn, these pins would pierce the skin.

Dust Storm (Manter, Kansas) (2008) is a work by John Gerrard who developed his first works in Realtime 3D in 2002. According to the IMMA: “Using the hyperreal qualities generated by simulation and video-game technologies, John Gerrard challenges the viewer with portraits of beautiful environments imbued with an unnerving serenity and sense that what we are seeing is perhaps too real, too slick and instilled with the potential to change or adapt, mirroring that plasticity found in nature.”

Abstract variations

Nominations from the Crawford Gallery highlight the work of two renowned contemporary painters. The selection from Sean Scully, who has twice been nominated for the Turner Prize, is hard-edged abstraction in style. In East Coast Light (1973), the overlaid bands of colour create a sense of depth in the work. Paintings from other periods can be seen on Europeana as well as an unusual fashion tribute.

Hughie O’Donoghue was born in England but worked for many years in Country Kerry. Medusa (2005) is principally an abstract work but evokes the theme of shipwreck. The title relates it to Theodore Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa (also referenced by Delacroix in La Liberté guidant le people, a Europeana 280 selection from France). O’Donoghue’s work draws on elements of history and mythology to create emotionally intense experiences.

We hope you're enjoying exploring the art selected for the Europeana 280 campaign so far. Join the conversation on Twitter using #Europeana280.