Irish Arts Review

THE AIB ART COLLECTIONReview by: BRIAN McAVERAIrish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 29, No. 3 (AUTUMN [SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2012]), p. 142Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23278491 .

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AUTUMN 2012

CATALOGUES

RHA182ND ANNUAL EXHIBITION DUBLIN, 2012 PP 96 FULLY ILLUSTRATED P/B €10.00 ISBN: 1-903875-63-3

The format of this annual exhibition is

now standard but none the worse for

that. The large number of colour illus

trations are reasonably well repro

duced, though some of them, like

Richard Gorman's Rest Circle are way

off! There is a very good and detailed

list of works (unfortunately not cross

referenced to the images) and in addi

tion to obituaries of William Crozier,

Richard Hurley and Desmond

Fitzgerald, a very much-to-be

welcomed series of short essays on

NIVAL by Eddie Murphy, on TRIARC

by Yvonne Scott, and on the Art and

Architecture of Ireland Project by.

Anita Griffin. Worth having.

orientated mediations on the work;

and by contrast a down-to-earth

interview with the artist conducted

by the performance artist - and

friend of the artist - Amanda

Coogan. Well worth buying.

BLACKSHAW AT 80 F E MCWILLIAM GALLERY & STUDIO, BANBRIDGE. 2012 PP 79 FULLY ILLUSTRATED H/B £15.00/619.00 ISBN 978-1-908455-04-8

RITA DUFFY: ARCTIC CIRCUS F E MCWILLIAM GALLERY & STUDIO, BANBRIDGE, 2012 PP 45 FULLY ILLUSTRATED, H/B £7.00/€8.90 ISBN 978-1-908455-03-1

Readers of IAR will be well aware

that I am a big fan of Basil Blackshaw,

and that S B Kennedy's 2002

Blackshaw exhibition at the Ulster

Museum was a magisterial achieve

ment that made Blackshaw look

Shiela Dickinson, and Denise Ferran,

though none of them attempt to place

the work in the context of Irish or

indeed European art.

THE AIB ART COLLECTION CRAWFORD ART GALLERY. CORK, 2012 PP 93 FULLY ILLUSTRATED P/B €10.00 ISBN 978-1-874756-14-9

For the politically interested, 39 'of

the finest works' of the AIB collection

have been donated to the State, and

the Minister for the Arts, Heritage and

the Gaeltacht has decided that they

shall reside at the Cork Municipal

Gallery and that additional pieces from the collection will be available to

publicly-funded galleries, on loan,

through the aegis of the Crawford.

This coffee-table catalogue reproduces

MICHAEL CANNING HILLSBORO FINE ART, DUBLIN. 2011 PP 48 FULLY-ILLUSTRATED H/B €10.00 ISBN: 978-0-9564950-4-4

Most of the recent catalogues from

Hillsboro Fine Art have come in the

standard format of the 48-page well

illustrated hardback, promoted for

many years now by the Golden

Thread Gallery in Belfast. As ever,

they are meticulously proofed, simply

but elegantly designed, contain good

CVs (though no list of reproduc

tions) and also have excellent repro

ductions on satisfyingly heavy,

chalk-surfaced paper. The catalogue

of Limerick-born Michael Canning

(b.1971) has two well-contrasted

pieces of writing: an essay by the

academic Kieran Cashell which is

essentially a series of philosophically

every inch the equal of any major

European painter. Unfortunately, on

the basis of this show, it would be

difficult to see Blackshaw as even a

major Irish painter, let alone a

European one. Far too much of what

is on display is bland and generic. One goes to the catalogue in the hope

of richer pickings only to find that

the colour registration is poor, and

worse, a number of the illustrations

are different versions to those on the

wall. There is a list of works but no

CV, but there is at least one solid

overview essay by S B Kennedy.

The Rita Duffy catalogue seems to

be primarily her response to several

Norwegian trips resulting in a cache

of watercolours, oils, charcoal draw

ings and soap sculptures, There are

very brief essays by Riann Coulter,

each work in colour with, on the facing

page, a brief commentary. There is

also an interesting introductory essay

by Peter Murray on the collection. But

in it, he states that 'the traumas associ

ated with conflicts in Northern Ireland

in the 1970s and 1980s are eloquently

represented in F E McWilliam's bronze

sculpture of a woman shopper caught

in a bomb blast'. This attempt to

co-opt supposed socio-political work

about the Troubles into the collection

is a bad joke. The work in question is

one of McWilliam's weakest (in this

writer's opinion) and is essentially

formalist. Notably, the collection

shies away from any of the artists

who actually did respond to the

Troubles which is hardly surprising in

a bank's collection. ■

BRIAN McAVERA is an art critic.

142 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I AUTUMN 2012

CATALOGUES

RHA182ND ANNUAL EXHIBITION DUBLIN, 2012 PP 96 FULLY ILLUSTRATED P/B €10.00 ISBN: 1-903875-63-3

MICHAEL CANNING HILLSBORO FINE ART. DUBLIN. 2011 PP 48 FULLY-ILLUSTRATED H/B €10.00 ISBN: 978-0-9564950-4-4

Most of the recent catalogues from

Hillsboro Fine Art have come in the

standard format of the 48-page well

illustrated hardback, promoted for

many years now by the Golden

Thread Gallery in Belfast. As ever,

they are meticulously proofed, simply

but elegantly designed, contain good

CVs (though no list of reproduc

tions) and also have excellent repro

ductions on satisfyingly heavy,

chalk-surfaced paper. The catalogue

of Limerick-born Michael Canning

(b.1971) has two well-contrasted

pieces of writing: an essay by the

academic Kieran Cashell which is

essentially a series of philosophically

orientated mediations on the work;

and by contrast a down-to-earth

interview with the artist conducted

by the performance artist - and

friend of the artist - Amanda

Coogan. Well worth buying.

BLACKSHAW AT 80 F E MCWILLIAM GALLERY & STUDIO. BANBRIDGE, 2012 PP 79 FULLY ILLUSTRATED H/B £15.00/019.00 ISBN 978-1-908455-04-8

RITA DUFFY: ARCTIC CIRCUS F E MCWILLIAM GALLERY & STUDIO. BANBRIDGE. 2012 PP 45 FULLY ILLUSTRATED. H/B E7.00/C8.90 ISBN 978-1-908455-03-1

Readers of IAR will be well aware

that I am a big fan of Basil Blackshaw, and that S B Kennedy's 2002

Blackshaw exhibition at the Ulster

Museum was a magisterial achieve

ment that made Blackshaw look

every inch the equal of any major

European painter. Unfortunately, on

the basis of this show, it would be

difficult to see Blackshaw as even a

major Irish painter, let alone a

European one. Far too much of what

is on display is bland and generic. One goes to the catalogue in the hope

of richer pickings only to find that

the colour registration is poor, and

worse, a number of the illustrations

are different versions to those on the

wall. There is a list of works but no

CV, but there is at least one solid

overview essay by S B Kennedy.

The Rita Duffy catalogue seems to

be primarily her response to several

Norwegian trips resulting in a cache

of watercolours, oils, charcoal draw

ings and soap sculptures, There are

very brief essays by Riann Coulter,

Shiela Dickinson, and Denise Ferran,

though none of them attempt to place

the work in the context of Irish or

indeed European art.

THE AIB ART COLLECTION CRAWFORD ART GALLERY, CORK, 2012 PP 93 FULLY ILLUSTRATED P/B €10.00 ISBN 978-1-874756-14-9

For the politically interested, 39 'of

the finest works' of the AIB collection

have been donated to the State, and

the Minister for the Arts, Heritage and

the Gaeltacht has decided that they

shall reside at the Cork Municipal

Gallery and that additional pieces

from the collection will be available to

publicly-funded galleries, on loan,

through the aegis of the Crawford.

This coffee-table catalogue reproduces

each work in colour with, on the facing

page, a brief commentary. There is

also an interesting introductory essay

by Peter Murray on the collection. But

in it, he states that 'the traumas associ

ated with conflicts in Northern Ireland

in the 1970s and 1980s are eloquently

represented in F E McWilliam's bronze

sculpture of a woman shopper caught

in a bomb blast'. This attempt to

co-opt supposed socio-political work

about the Troubles into the collection

is a bad joke. The work in question is

one of McWilliam's weakest (in this

writer's opinion) and is essentially

formalist. Notably, the collection

shies away from any of the artists

who actually did respond to the

Troubles which is hardly surprising in

a bank's collection. ■

BRIAN McAVERA is an art critic.

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.216 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:55:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions