Irish Art | Encyclopedia of Visual Arts in Ireland | History of Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking

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• Sitemap 1 - Irish Painters & Sculptors
• Sitemap 2 - Art in Ireland
• Sitemap 3 - WORLD ART

History of Irish art, including Celtic Heritage, Book of Kells and Religious High Cross sculpture
Questions & Answers
For a list of popular
queries about visual
arts in Ireland, see:
Irish Art Questions

Irish Art: From 3300 BCE Onwards
We trace the 10 stages in the History of Irish art, including the Stone Age engravings at Newgrange, the evolution of Celtic culture, the La Tene and Hallstatt styles of Celtic art and metalwork of the Iron Age, the Book of Kells and High Cross sculpture of the early Christian era, the formation of more modern cultural institutions which fostered the growth of Irish Painting and sculpture, such as the Dublin Society, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Read about Visual Arts in Ireland, the architectural heritage and historical culture of Munster, Connacht, Leinster and Ulster, plus the artists associated with each of the 32 counties, including Dublin. Read about the major Irish arts organizations, like the Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaíon) and Culture Ireland (Cultúr Na hÉireann), plus artist groups like Aosdana. For the cultural heritage of the rebel county, see Cork art.

Established and Contemporary Visual Artists from Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster

Who's Who in Irish Art
We look at a range of Famous Irish artists involved in traditional painting and sculpture, as well as contemporary forms of expression, such as photography, installation and video. Read biographies of top painters working in oils, watercolours, gouache, acrylics, or pastels, like the expressionist Jack Butler Yeats, the academic portraitist William Orpen, the surrealist Francis Bacon, the still life master William Scott, and Louis le Brocquy. We cover the great names from the 17th, 18th and 19th century - like the portraitist James Latham, history painters James Barry, and Daniel Maclise, Impressionist exponents of plein-air painting like Frank O'Meara, John Lavery, Roderic O'Conor, and Walter Osborne - plus 20th century artists like: Paul Henry, Sean Keating, Tony O'Malley, Gerard Dillon, Brian Ballard, Basil Blackshaw, Hughie O'Donoghue, Graham Knuttel, Donald Teskey, John Shinnors and many more! We briefly review Irish portrait artists, as well as Irish genre painters and landscape artists, and profile some exciting Contemporary Irish Artists. For a personal view of the best living painters, see: Best Irish Artists.

European Old Masters and other Famous Painters
Why did this man die? See: Questions About Famous Artists.

WORLD'S BEST ART
See details of the top
painters & sculptors:
Best History Painters
Best Portrait Artists
Best Genre Painters
Best Landscape Artists
Best Still Life Painters

The World's Greatest Artists
For biographical details along with works of fine art painting by the great European Old Masters such as Jan Van Eyck, Roger Van Der Weyden, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Albrecht Durer, El Greco, Hieronymus Bosch, Caravaggio, Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Goya and many more, see: Old Masters.

For information about modern artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the landscape genius JMW Turner; the Impressionists Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas and Georges Seurat; the Post-Impressionists Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne; the expressionists Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Amedeo Modigliani, Wassily Kandinsky and Max Beckmann; the Viennese painters Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele; the Cubists Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Georges Braque; the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealist Salvador Dali, the abstract painter Piet Mondrian; the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning; the painter and screen-printer Andy Warhol, the avant-garde Damien Hirst, and more, see: Famous Artists.

See also: Greatest Paintings Ever (1300-present) and Greatest Sculptures Ever (33,000 BCE-present) and the Best Artists of All Time: Top 10.

The Plastic Arts

COMING SOON
Our new series on
Irish Ceramics.

Who's Who in Irish and World Sculpture
For information about the works of the best sculptors from Ireland, working in bronze, stone, clay, porcelain, wood, as well as steel and fibre glass, such as the Anglo-Irish sculptor John Foley, the neo-classical John Hogan, the Nationalist Oliver Sheppard, the 'Gaelic' sculptor Albert Power, the Cork realist Seamus Murphy, the Surrealist FE McWilliam, the figurative sculptor Rowan Gillespie, and many others, see: Irish Sculpture. For the evolution of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greek sculpture, Roman narrative reliefs, statues by Renaissance artists like Donatello and Michelangelo, as well as works by Giambologna, Giovanni Bernini and Auguste Rodin, plus the amazing Chinese terracotta army warriors, see Sculpture: History and Styles.

Origins and Evolution of Western Art
GOT A QUESTION?
We have the answer!
Art History Questions

CHRONOLOGY OF ART
For a list of important
dates in the evolution
of creativity, see:
Prehistoric Art Timeline
History of Art Timeline

Origins and History of Western Art
What is the Earliest Art ever made? Who created the famous Venus figurines? Where are the finest cave paintings of prehistoric art? Why is Greek art and the Italian Renaissance so important to Western culture? Who invented oil painting? What is Mannerism? How does the Baroque style differ from Rococo? What's the difference between Expressionism and Impressionism? What is Cubism? What is Dada? What is Pop-Art? For answers to all these questions concerning the development of human creativity, from the sculpture and frescos of Classical Antiquity, to the mosaics and religious iconography of the Byzantine era, and onwards to Postmodernism, see the History of Art.

Read other articles on the distinction between "modern art" and "contemporary art" and browse our reviews of modern and contemporary movements. In addition, for beautiful buildings designed by architects from prehistoric Egyptian and Classical Antiquity, as well as the later Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical movements, see Architecture: History and Styles.

Painting Genres: Historical, Portraiture, Genre-Painting, Landscapes, Still Lifes

The 5 Traditional Genres
What is a genre-painting? What exactly is a history painting? How did Dutch Realist painters hide messages inside their still life pictures? How did landscape painting develop? How exactly did the English School of Landscape Painting emerge? What sort of portraiture is associated with Picasso? Who was the greatest Impressionist landscape painter? What about the history, styles and exponents of abstract art, and how does this compare with representational art? For answers to these and all other related questions, click: Painting Genres.

The Meaning of Art
What is Conceptualism? What is a Happening? What are the "plastic arts?" What's the difference between fine, visual and applied arts? How does tempera compare with encaustic paint? For answers to these and all your questions about different aesthetic forms, such as: Animation, Assemblage, Calligraphy, Collage, Drawing, Ink-and-Wash, Installations, Life-Drawing, Mixed-media, Performance or Happenings, Photography, Screen-Printing, Glass or Video artworks, as well as a discussion of some key questions, see: Definition and Meaning of Art. See also: Questions About Art. For a list of terms used in fine arts, see: Art Glossary of Terms.

Markets and Auction Prices
To see what investors will pay for a painting on the global market, either at auction or privately, see our list of the Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings in the world - and our list of Most Expensive Irish Paintings. Read about the top salesroom results from auctioneers like Sotheby's and Christie's, and keep up to date with news and information about the Irish art market in 2009. Is it a good idea to invest in fine art during the recession? We investigate this issue next week. Meantime, for the latest survey of the most popular artists around the globe, see our list of the world's Top-20 Best-Selling Contemporary Artists.

Museums and Galleries

Galleries & Museums
For information about the top public museums, such as the National Gallery of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland, the Chester Beatty Library and the Hugh Lane Gallery, as well a wide range of private galleries and the artists they represent, see: Irish Art Galleries. For shows, see: Irish Exhibitions.
Also, read about the best art museums like the Prado Museum Madrid, the Hermitage St Petersburg, the Uffizi Gallery Florence, the Louvre Museum, the Tate Gallery London, the Pinakothek Munich, the National Gallery London, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Musée d'Orsay and the New York trio - the "The Met", MOMA and the Guggenheim.

News of Irish and World Art
For the latest news of famous painters and sculptors, international auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's, major shows and exhibitions, as well as news of cultural events in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Clare, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Waterford and throughout Ireland, north and south, see: Irish Art News.

Your Suggestions

Feedback... Tell us what you want!
Looking for more information about European sculptors like Constantin Brancusi or Alberto Giacometti? Want more details of post-modernist art? Want to read more about twentieth century figures, like Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, Damien Hirst, or Fernando Botero? Want more examples of graphics, computer or digital imagery, or more information about folk cultures and crafts, Orientalism or Islamic culture? Are you interested in design movements such as Rococo, Art Deco, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, or the moody Pre-Raphaelite style? Would you like to read more about the great academies, like the Royal Academy in London? Do you have an interest in the decorative arts as exemplified by Greek Pottery vases or the porcelain masterpieces of Chinese Pottery? Would you like more video art or animation cartoons, or caricatures? Would you like more Roman art, or more examples of vanitas still lifes, or miniatures by Dutch Realists such as Harmen Steenwyck, or Rachel Ruysch? Want to see more about colour in painting, or more examples of drawing? Or would you prefer to read more about specific media like frescoes, murals, or faux-finishes? How about more information on artist-groups like the Hudson River School or maybe later movements like Pointillism, Constructivism, Fluxus or Stuckism? Or are you more intrigued by avant-garde artforms like ice-sculpture or graffiti?

Whether you're a creative practitioner, a critic, museum curator, collector, or simply someone who likes beautiful things, contact us with your views!

A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS WE COVER

IRISH CULTURE: 3,300 BCE - PRESENT
We cover the cultural history of the
32 counties, from prehistory onwards:
including the Neolithic era carvings
at Newgrange, exquisite Bronze and
Iron Age Celtic metalworks such as the
Broighter Gold Torc, illuminated gospel
texts created in the scriptoriums of early
Irish monasteries, free-standing Celtic-
Christian La Tene High Cross Sculptures,
followed by the portraits, topographical
landscapes and historical paintings of
the 18th/19th century, the Continental
plein-airism of emigrant painters of the
19th century, and last the 20th century
mixture of traditional and avant-garde
styles. We also profile the major arts
institutions of Ireland, plus collectives
and other artist- groups, all the large
museums, gallery venues and schools.
FOR SITEMAP SEE: ART IN IRELAND.

IRISH ARTISTS: 17th - 21st Century
Almost without exception, the names
of the early creative practioners who
decorated the megalithic tombs of
Brugh na Bóinne at Knowth, Dowth
County Meath, are unknown to us,
as are the Celtic-style metalworkers,
sculptors and illustrators of the great
monastic culture (600-1000 CE). Our
list of famous Irish artists starts with
Garret Morphy and Susanna Drury of
the 17th century, and continues up
until the 21st century. We have over
300 biographical profiles of painters;
sculptors in marble, granite, bronze,
wood and other modern media; plus
ceramicists, stained glass craftsmen
and numerous contemporary and
avant-garde artists, working in video,
photography and installation.
SEE: IRISH PAINTERS/SCULPTORS.

WORLD ART: 750,000 BCE - PRESENT
We cover the origins and evolution
of art across the globe, beginning with
the petroglyphs, cupules and rock art
of the Paleolithic epoch, through the
cave murals at Chauvet and Lascaux
to artifacts from ancient civilizations
around the Mediterranean Basin, as
well as Tribal, Oceanic, Japanese and
Chinese art, and aboriginal artforms
from Australia and Africa. We cover
ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the
Gothic and Florentine Renaissance,
after which we profile major art styles
periods & genres, as well as many of
the world's top painters, sculptors and
printmakers from Giotto to Jeff Koons.
We also cover the many different media
as well as museums, auction houses,
and famous European academies.
FOR SITEMAP SEE: INTERNATIONAL ART.

We are a not-for-profit, information-only website, based in County Cork, whose aim is to promote Irish art and to celebrate beautiful painting and sculpture from around the world. Our strict Privacy Policy means we do not sell, rent, or in any way release details collected on this website to third parties. We welcome all articles about traditional and contemporary art in the 32 Counties.