Dublin gallery day - part 3 of 3

More than two weeks have passed since I made my big excursion in to Dublin for a "gallery day", but it was impossible to blog about it all in one blog day, so I divided up chronologically to suit how my day went. I blogged about the first two stops (The Molesworth Gallery and The National Gallery) last week, and you can find that blog here and I continued on to see Damien Flood's new exhibition, Tilt, at the RHA, which I blogged about here. The RHA is so huge that there was another big exhibition going on across the hall: Sean Scully's "Eleuthera", recent paintings titled after the Caribbean island where his family holidayed a few years ago.

It was a huge coincidence that I had seen an earlier, small abstract piece of Scully's at The National Gallery exhibition, Living with Art: from Picasso to Celmins. The accompanying didactic specifically said that Scully had worked figuratively before becoming reknowned for his totally non-objective large paintings. Both my husband and I looked at each other doubtfully - neither of us had ever seen any figurative work by Sean Scully. Then we walked across the hall to be met by these huge, vibrant figurative Scully works! I absolutely love them!

The huge paintings were done on aluminum and this picture gives an idea of their size! 

All the work in the exhibition focusses on Scully's 8 year old son playing in the sand with bucket and spade. The secondary figure that appears in many works is most likely the child's mother. This simple idyll has a multitude of variations where drawing as well as painting has a role to play in the final composition.

There was a large framed display of research photographs in the first part of the exhibition and in the second part small works were displayed, probably part of Scully's colour decision process.

The smallest works, at the end of the exhibition, were all black and white sketch drawings. Possibly these drawings were created from the photos, but they had the exuberance and immediacy of in situ sketches. Though Scully is a reknowned master of contemporary non-objective painting, this vibrant exhibition spoke directly to my sensibilities and I hope to see more work like this from him in the future.

Dublin culture!

A few weeks ago I spent the day in Dublin catching up on exhibitions that I wanted to see. At the National Gallery of Ireland, there is a new way of displaying a most beloved and delicate painting of FW Burton's. "Hellelil & Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs" is on view at the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art on Monday & Wednesday morning only, through a free, but timed, ticket (available at the information desk). The last time I had planned to see this painting the viewing box was closed, so armed with my timed ticket I was delighted at the almost private view.

At the NGI I also saw the Sean Scully exhibition in honour of his 70th birthday. It was great to see the large canvases, especially the multiple canvas "window" works. A room full of Scully's b&w photographs was a very pleasant surprise, as I also share his obsession with stone walls in Ireland.

It is always nice to pop into the nearby National Museum of Ireland. There was an exhibition on Brian Boru and the battle for Dublin. You learn something new every day! Also in the vicinity is the National Library of Ireland. On the recommendation of a visitor I went to see the very meaty WB Yeats exhibition. This was my first time in the NLI and I was surprised at the size of the exhibition space. Since the collection and displays were manuscript based, the lights were very dim. However, I don't think conservation was really the top priority as a single spotlight focused in the centre of this painting by Edmund Dulac of WB's wife George! I don't think the spotlight was good for the painting but I was also disappointed that it was displayed on the top shelf of a display case so that it was out of my viewing reach.

In the afternoon I went over to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) specifically to see the Etel Adnan exhibition. I had read about Adnan a few months ago -- she is a 90 year old painter and poet who is only finally getting some recognition lately!

While at IMMA I also took the opportunity to see the Stan Douglas exhibition "Mise en Scene".