Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [38]
Probably the most controversial piece of modern architecture to be unveiled in recent years has been the Monument of Light (Click here; rechristened simply the Spire) on Dublin’s O’Connell St. At seven times the height of the GPO (120m in total), the brushed steel hollow cone was always going to face opposition, but since its unveiling in spring 2003, the awe-inspiring structure and beautifully reflective surface have won over all but a few hardened cynics.
Visual Arts
Ireland’s painting doesn’t receive the kind of recognition that its literature and music do. Nevertheless, painting in Ireland has a long tradition dating back to the illuminated manuscripts of the early Christian period, most notably the Book of Kells.
The National Gallery has an extensive Irish School collection, much of it chronicling the people and pursuits of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy.
Like other European artists of the 18th century, Roderic O’Conor featured portraits and landscapes in his work. His post-impressionist style stood out for its vivid use of colour and sturdy brush strokes. James Malton captured 18th-century Dublin in a series of line drawings and paintings.
In the 19th century there was still no hint of Ireland’s political and social problems in the work of its major artists. The most prominent landscape painter was James Arthur O’Connor, while Belfast-born Sir John Lavery became one of London’s most celebrated portrait artists.
Just as WB Yeats played a seminal role in the Celtic literary revival, his younger brother, Jack Butler Yeats (1871–1957), inspired an artistic surge of creativity in the early 20th century, taking Celtic mythology and Irish life as his subjects. (Their father, John Butler Yeats, had also been a noted portrait painter.) William John Leech (1881–1961) was fascinated by changing light, an affection reflected in his expressionistic landscapes and flower paintings. Born to English parents in Dublin, Francis Bacon (1909–92) emerged as one of the most powerful figurative artists of the 20th century with his violent depictions of distorted human bodies.
The stained-glass work of Harry Clarke (1889–1931) is also worth a mention in the canon of modern Irish art: heavily influenced by contemporary styles including art nouveau and symbolism, Clarke’s work was primarily for church windows (Click here and Click here).
The pioneering work of Irish cubist painter Mainie Jellett (1897–1944) and her friend, modernist stained-glass artist Evie Hone (1894–1955), had an influence on later modernists Barrie Cooke (b 1931) and Camille Souter (b 1929). Together with Louis Le Brocquy (b 1916), Jellett and Hone set up the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943 to foster the work of nonacademic artists. Estella Solomons (1882–1968) trained under William Orpen and Walter Osborne in Dublin and was a noted portrait and landscape painter. The rural idyll of the west of Ireland was also a theme of Paul Henry’s (1876–1958) landscapes. In the 1950s and 1960s, a school of naive artists, including James Dixon, appeared on Tory Island, off Donegal (see the boxed text, Click here).
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James Dixon, Tory Island’s first ‘naive’ painter, used boat paint and brushes that he made from donkey hair.
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Contemporary artists to watch out for include Nick Miller, New York–based Sean Scully and Fionnuala Ní Chíosain. Also worth looking out for are Grace Weir and Dorothy Cross, whose works are exhibited in the country’s top galleries.
Experimental photographer Clare Langan’s work has gained international recognition with her trademark ethereal images of elemental landscapes.
Murals have been an important way of documenting Ireland’s more recent political history. Powerful political murals can be seen in West Belfast and Derry.
Theatre
Dublin and Belfast are the main centres, but most sizeable towns, such as Cork, Derry, Donegal, Limerick and Galway, have their own theatres. Ireland has a theatrical history almost as long as its literary one. Dublin’s first theatre