Rush to the RHA
SILLY ME! That’s the kind of expression to make me cringe, but somehow I can’t bring myself to write “Stupid me!” “Careless me!” might be more appropriate and self-forgiving.
In any case, I start with an apology that the subject of this week’s column has only a few days to run, so if you are to act on my advice you’d want to get your skates on.
The annual exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) will close this Saturday, August 10, and if you haven’t managed, or don’t manage, to see it, that will be a real pity.
You might have seen the programme Exhibitionists on RTE a few weeks ago, which looked at half a dozen artists who were preparing work for submission to the show.
Only some of them were accepted: more on that later.
For those who have never been, the RHA has a fine gallery only a hen’s race from Stephen’s Green with spacious exhibition halls allowing for more than 320 works to be displayed, ranging from the almost miniature to the magnificent in scale.
A certain number of spaces are reserved for members of the Academy, and for invited artists, but there is ample room for a good selection by arts practitioners from outside this establishment.
I was about to call them amateur artists, but that would be unfair. Very few people can make a full-time job out of art, unless they have the support of a generous partner — what they used to call “a laying hen”. Please excuse the sexist language; there is no male equivalent.
So let’s get back to the people who featured in the TV documentary. The first work I recognised was that of Salvatore of Lucan. His very tall painting is entitled “Lucy with 3 hands and me holding on to her leg” which is more or less what it is, except that the hand with which he is holding her leg appears to have grown an extra set of fingertips. You could read all kinds of meanings into it, apart from the obvious implication that both are looking away from each other, into smartphone screens.
Another is a technically very accomplished etching by Margaret Irwin, a Clifden-based artist who is well into her golden years. Three plates are printed on to one sheet of paper, depicting water lapping on a sandy beach with a discarded shoe in the foreground. It’s entitled “All That Remains”.
One of the most heart-warming moments of my tour around the exhibits was seeing the work of a father and daughter on adjoining walls of one room.
The father is Jimmy Lawlor, a Westport-based painter whose whimsical, slightly surreal work has adorned posters for both the Galway and Clifden arts festivals. His “Play on Words” shows a young woman sitting on a pile of books but (again) looking into a smartphone screen, the greenish light from which reflects on her face.
Not far away is Hetty Lawlor’s painting “Golden” of a young boy looking into an aquarium. I was delighted to see that this talented young woman, who won the Texaco Art Competition in 2017, was awarded the Don Niccolo d’Ardia Caracciolo Medal and €1,500. Watch out for her name in the future.
Not far from this work hangs a portrait of the broadcaster Joe Duffy, in a snow-white shirt, braces, tie-clasp and cufflinks looking every inch the successful businessman he has become. Joe has trodden the same road as every other clever student radical. If you can’t beat them, join them.
Speaking of portraits, there is a superb life-size bronze bust of the great Irish designer Eileen Gray. It’s in bronze, with a finish in shades of grey and it sits on a plinth that resembles one of Gray’s modern furniture designs. You can see it in the picture above.
When it comes to art appreciation, I tend to appreciate the broadly figurative and representational. Pure colour and texture, in other words abstract art, rarely gives me that shock of pleasure I seek. Give me an image I can relate to, that suggests some kind of narrative, and I can study it for a long time.
The hyper-realistic study of an old fashioned blue-bordered blanket by Jennifer Trouton entitled “The Invisible Past” was intriguing. An architectural collage in ink and watercolour “The Buildings of James Gandon” by Fergal McCabe was something I would love on my wall.
But the best of all in this show was by Martin Gale. A group of crows flies out of the left hand side of a rural scene, with a red vehicle, possibly a quad bike, providing a splash of colour on the right. Like all Gale’s work there is an atmosphere of something hidden, troubling; something about to happen, or that has just happened. The title “Incident” reinforces the impression.
There are another 310 or so pieces of art in this show. You are bound to love some of them.
In any case, I start with an apology that the subject of this week’s column has only a few days to run, so if you are to act on my advice you’d want to get your skates on.
The annual exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) will close this Saturday, August 10, and if you haven’t managed, or don’t manage, to see it, that will be a real pity.
You might have seen the programme Exhibitionists on RTE a few weeks ago, which looked at half a dozen artists who were preparing work for submission to the show.
Only some of them were accepted: more on that later.
For those who have never been, the RHA has a fine gallery only a hen’s race from Stephen’s Green with spacious exhibition halls allowing for more than 320 works to be displayed, ranging from the almost miniature to the magnificent in scale.
A certain number of spaces are reserved for members of the Academy, and for invited artists, but there is ample room for a good selection by arts practitioners from outside this establishment.
I was about to call them amateur artists, but that would be unfair. Very few people can make a full-time job out of art, unless they have the support of a generous partner — what they used to call “a laying hen”. Please excuse the sexist language; there is no male equivalent.
So let’s get back to the people who featured in the TV documentary. The first work I recognised was that of Salvatore of Lucan. His very tall painting is entitled “Lucy with 3 hands and me holding on to her leg” which is more or less what it is, except that the hand with which he is holding her leg appears to have grown an extra set of fingertips. You could read all kinds of meanings into it, apart from the obvious implication that both are looking away from each other, into smartphone screens.
Another is a technically very accomplished etching by Margaret Irwin, a Clifden-based artist who is well into her golden years. Three plates are printed on to one sheet of paper, depicting water lapping on a sandy beach with a discarded shoe in the foreground. It’s entitled “All That Remains”.
One of the most heart-warming moments of my tour around the exhibits was seeing the work of a father and daughter on adjoining walls of one room.
The father is Jimmy Lawlor, a Westport-based painter whose whimsical, slightly surreal work has adorned posters for both the Galway and Clifden arts festivals. His “Play on Words” shows a young woman sitting on a pile of books but (again) looking into a smartphone screen, the greenish light from which reflects on her face.
Not far away is Hetty Lawlor’s painting “Golden” of a young boy looking into an aquarium. I was delighted to see that this talented young woman, who won the Texaco Art Competition in 2017, was awarded the Don Niccolo d’Ardia Caracciolo Medal and €1,500. Watch out for her name in the future.
Not far from this work hangs a portrait of the broadcaster Joe Duffy, in a snow-white shirt, braces, tie-clasp and cufflinks looking every inch the successful businessman he has become. Joe has trodden the same road as every other clever student radical. If you can’t beat them, join them.
Speaking of portraits, there is a superb life-size bronze bust of the great Irish designer Eileen Gray. It’s in bronze, with a finish in shades of grey and it sits on a plinth that resembles one of Gray’s modern furniture designs. You can see it in the picture above.
When it comes to art appreciation, I tend to appreciate the broadly figurative and representational. Pure colour and texture, in other words abstract art, rarely gives me that shock of pleasure I seek. Give me an image I can relate to, that suggests some kind of narrative, and I can study it for a long time.
The hyper-realistic study of an old fashioned blue-bordered blanket by Jennifer Trouton entitled “The Invisible Past” was intriguing. An architectural collage in ink and watercolour “The Buildings of James Gandon” by Fergal McCabe was something I would love on my wall.
But the best of all in this show was by Martin Gale. A group of crows flies out of the left hand side of a rural scene, with a red vehicle, possibly a quad bike, providing a splash of colour on the right. Like all Gale’s work there is an atmosphere of something hidden, troubling; something about to happen, or that has just happened. The title “Incident” reinforces the impression.
There are another 310 or so pieces of art in this show. You are bound to love some of them.