Simone Mancini and Adrian Le Harivel select a painting from the Care of the Collection display at the National Gallery of Ireland
This painting is on view at the National Gallery of Ireland until 30 May in the ‘Care of the Collection’ display, as part of the Gallery’s 150th anniversary programme, showing how conservation attitudes and practises have changed during its history. Works of art are often treated over decades, or centuries, and conservators have inevitably left testimony of their different approaches. Moreover, the natural ageing of interacting materials is part of the history of an artwork. In 1936 there was no conservation department at the National Gallery of Ireland, when Sebastian Isepp, restorer from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, made a survey of the collection and highlighted the fact that up to thirty pictures were in need of attention due to physical damage in the paint layer or support. Isepp was keen to remove discoloured varnish, darkened retouches and ‘unnecessary overpainting’ that affected their appearance.
In his assessment of Fitzgerald Kavanagh and Partners’ award-winning Student Centre at UCD Seán ó Laoire charts the evolution of Ireland’s largest campus since its foundation
Carissa Farrell reports on sculptor and multi-media artist Andrew Kearney’s new installation ‘Tell Me Something’ for Limerick City of Culture, which continues Kearney’s focus on the policing of the private individual
Without decisive action, our glass heritage will once again be lost, argues Eleanor Flegg, as Róisín de Buitléar’s exhibition’Caution! Fragile’ receives an enthusiastic reception Stateside