Visual Arts in Ireland
Guide to History of Art & Culture in 32 Irish Counties of Munster, Leinster, Connacht & Leinster.

Visual Arts in Ireland

A land of saints and scholars, Ireland has a unique Celtic and Christian heritage which continues to be reflected in the outstanding work of its painters and sculptors. Founded on the neolithic stone carvings at Newgrange, the masterpieces of Celtic Iron Age metalwork, as well as the illuminated gospel manuscripts and High Cross sculptures of the first Millennia, visual art in Ireland continues to excel in all media.

Fortunately, Irish art is now supported by numerous bodies, such as the Department of Arts and the nationwide Percent For Art Scheme, the Irish Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaion), the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and by Ireland's fine art schools - the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, and the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork. In addition, Ireland has a number of innovative artists organizations, such as Aosdana and Visual Artists Ireland (formerly the Sculptors’ Society). Lastly, Irish painting and sculpture is promoted internationally by Culture Ireland (Cultúr Na hÉireann).

Art Venues

Ireland is home to several world class museums and galleries which are located around the country, including: the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin), the National Self-Portrait Collection (Limerick), The Hugh Lane (Dublin), the Crawford Art Gallery (Cork), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), the Lewis Glucksman Gallery (Cork), the Chester Beatty Library and National Museum of Ireland (Dublin), The Naughton Gallery at Queen's University Belfast, the Hunt Museum (Limerick) and the Ulster Museum (Belfast). Other notable municipal galleries include the Limerick City Museum and Gallery of Art and the Waterford Art Gallery, to name but two. All this is complemented by numerous private art galleries, hosting regular exhibitions of painting, sculpture, Installation, ceramics and stained glass art by emerging as well as established Irish artists.

Irish Provinces

Each of Ireland's four provinces has its own unique history of Irish art, from the earliest Celtic stone and metalwork to the most modern contemporary arts.

Leinster

The cultural heritage of Leinster, which includes the counties of Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow, begins with the World Heritage neolithic Stone Age complex at Newgrange, in County Meath. The province also boasts several examples of medieval High Cross sculpture, and is home to several priceless illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow. Leinster's list of world class artists includes Ireland's greatest living painter Louis le Brocquy, as well as the modern expressionist Francis Bacon, the Impressionists Walter Osborne and WJ Leech, the academic portraitist William Orpen, the stained glass virtuosi Harry Clarke and Evie Hone, and the abstract landscape artist Tony O'Malley.

Connacht

The westernmost province in the Republic of Ireland, Connacht includes the counties of Galway, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo, and is home to Ireland's finest surviving example of pagan monumental art - the Turoe Stone. In more modern times, Connacht has attracted hundreds of outstanding landscape and plein-air painters to its wild Atlantic coastline and unique hinterland. Connacht's two most famous artists are the Impressionist Roderic O'Conor and the great expressionist Jack Butler Yeats, whose brother WB Yeats was buried in the province.

Munster

The southern province of Munster (An Mhumhain) includes the counties of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. Munster is noted for a number of early Celtic art treasures. County Cork was the origin of the Petrie Crown; Limerick was the site of the Ardagh Chalice, while the Derrynaflan Hoard was located in Tipperary. Bursting with numerous fine art venues, Munster has a host of fine painters including Cork artists like Daniel Maclise, Seamus Murphy, Dorothy Cross, John Kingerlee, William Crozier, and Limerick painters like the Romantic Realist Sean Keating and the contemporary artist John Shinnors. See also Cork art news and Cork Festivals.

Ulster

The northerly province of Ireland, Ulster includes the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone - all administered from Belfast - as part of Northern Ireland - and the counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, which are part of the Republic. Ulster's cultural traditions encompass Celtic high cross sculpture, numerous Stone Age tombs as well as connections with the literary Bronte family. Its most famous artists include the great landscape painter Paul Henry, the genre and portrait painter William Conor, the portraitist John Butler Yeats (father of Jack B Yeats), as well as Gladys MacCabe - one of Ireland's most outstanding female painters.

History of Irish Visual Arts

The story of art in Ireland begins with Stone Age carvings found at the huge complex of burial mounds at Newgrange and Knowth (c.3200 BCE) - including what archeologists believe to be the first recorded map of the moon - and is then traced through Bronze Age ornamental objects - such as the great Lunala relics - to the late Celtic metalwork masterpieces of the Iron Age such as the La Tène style Petrie crown, the design work on the Turoe Stone, and the Broighter Collar.

The Medieval era (c.500 CE onwards) witnessed an amazing Renaissance in Irish early Christian art, which historians refer to as the Hiberno-Saxon style of Insular art. High points of this cultural rebirth include the world-renowned series of Irish illuminated manuscripts, as well as such masterpieces as the Ardagh Chalice, the Derrynaflan Chalice, and the Tara Brooch. Around this time (c.750-1150), Ireland saw the emergence of its unique High Cross sculpture - a form of public religious stonework unrivalled in Western European culture during the medieval era.

After a pause of several centuries (1200-1700), during which visual art almost disappeared due to political upheaval and uncertainty, new organizations and artists began to appear. Trinity College Dublin had already been established in 1592, now the Royal Dublin Society was founded in 1731, followed by the Royal Irish Academy (1785) and painters like George Barret (1732-84) and James Barry (1741-1806) began to bloom. Other emerging artists included the landscape painters William Sadler (1782-1839), James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841), and Daniel Maclise (1806-70), along with the sculptors John Foley (1818-74), John Lawlor (1820-1901) and Samuel Lynn (1834-76). The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) was founded in 1823.

After the catastrophe of the famine, the second half of the 19th century witnessed the appearance of such Irish masters as Richard Thoman Moynan (1856-1906), Walter Osborne (1859–1903), Roderic O'Conor (1860–1940) and the erudite Norman Garstin (1847-1926), all of whom spent periods on the Continent absorbing the plein-air methods of the Impressionists and other schools of French art. In contrast, the portraitists John Lavery (1856-1941) and William Orpen (1878-1931) chose London to establish their careers. By the end of the century, a new generation of Irish visual artists began to emerge including Jack B Yeats (1871–1957), Beatrice Elvery (Lady Glenavy) (1881-1970), the Dublin artists Sean Keating (1889-1977), Maurice MacGonigal (1900-1979) and Sean O’Sullivan (1906-1964), as well as the more internationist Mainie Jellett (1897-1944) and Evie Hone (1894-1955). Irish sculpture was also well served by sculptors like John Henry Foley (1818-74), John Hogan (1800-58), John Hughes (1865-1941), Oliver Sheppard (1864-1941), Andrew O'Connor (1874-1941), Rosamund Praeger (1867-1954), Jerome Connor (1876-1943), and Seamus Murphy (1907-1975).

Independence

After the birth of the new State in 1921, Irish fine art was strengthened in numerous ways, not least by greater investment in education and public arts facilities. (Northern Ireland's art scene also began to stir with the establishment of the Royal Ulster Academy.) However, a degree of isolation and cultural stagnation became evident - as reflected in the dispute between traditionalists and more avant-garde members of Dublin's growing community of artists, culminating in the formation of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (1943) to provide a showcase for contemporary Irish painting. More recent landmarks include the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland, which greatly impeded the development of an all-Ireland approach to art and culture.

Irish Art Today

Despite the political and economic problems of the later 20th century, the Irish fine art market has continued to flourish throughout the island, as evidenced by the growing number of record prices achieved by Irish artists in auctioneers sales rooms. In addition, new funding and support structures for professional painters and sculptors, along with the development of new art galleries and commercial collections, has created a new climate of cultural opportunity and awareness. The national Museum of Modern Art was opened in Dublin, and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery in Cork City, while three centres were established to support sculpture, including the National Sculpture Factory in Cork. At the same time, Irish art organizations like the Arts Council have paid particular attention to developing public access to the arts in towns like Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Tralee, Listowel, Mullingar, Limerick, Galway, Castlebar, Sligo, Monaghan, Drogheda and Dublin, and most local authorities now employ specialist Arts Officers. In short, the health and status of the visual arts in Ireland has never been stronger.

• For more information about painting and sculpture, see: Visual Arts Cork: Guide to Irish Art.

© visual-arts-cork.com 2008 All rights reserved.