A detail from Atsushi Kaga’s painting Usacchi in an Irish Landscape (Dublin 8) graces the cover of our winter edition. Kaga has lived and worked in Ireland for many years, producing work that blends Japanese and European mythological traditions. FRANCIS HALSALL discloses that the white hare, a common trope in Japanese folklore, also functions as the artist’s alter ego. Traditionally in the history of art, motherhood has been portrayed in an idealised manner. In the exhibition ‘Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood’, an assembly of international and Irish artists relate their varied experiences of motherhood, as MARGARITA CAPPOCK writes, through a ‘breathtaking range’ of works in painting, sculpture, photography and film. Genre painter Erskine Nicol arrived in Dublin from Edinburgh in 1846 during the Irish famine. and, notes AMÉLIE DOCHY, few painters from this period offered so many vignettes of rural life in Ireland as he did; YVONNE SCOTT highlights some important works in the oeuvre of artist Kathy Prendergast; and ROBERT ARMSTRONG writes about painter Michael Cullen. Joe Dunne tells AIDAN DUNNE that ‘still life has everything: abstraction, colour, form’, while ‘Portraits can be difficult… You’re dealing with people’s preconceptions.’ STEPHANIE McBRIDE looks at a series of photographs from Yvette Monahan that explore the hidden life of fish; and TOM DUFFY commends the work of Lancelot Bayly, ‘one of Ireland’s larger-than-life creative and artistic luminaries’. Founded c. 1200 by William de Burgh, Athassel Augustinian Priory in Tipperary boasts ornate capitals and one of the most elaborate Gothic portals in Ireland. ROGER STALLEY examines its intriguing history. Dublin born and educated, Charles Collins moved to London in the early 18th century, where he became a successful still-life painter. As PETER MURRAY reveals, he was also a prolific watercolourist, specialising in pictures of birds. Elsewhere in the edition, there’s CRISTÍN LEACH on Brian Harte; EAMONN MAXWELL on Philip Quinn; and EMER McGARRY on an exhibition addressing issues of inheritance, colonial and personal. Usual features include the Diary of Events by KATHRYN MILLIGAN, Art at Auction by JOHN P O’SULLIVAN and Design Portfolio by FRANCES McDONALD. There are book reviews by Adrian Kenny, Gearóid Arthur Hayes, John Waddell and Elaine Sisson. Finally, PAULA MURPHY recounts the story of Irish-American sculptor Thomas Crawford, whose statue Freedom sits atop the Capitol building in Washington DC. Crawford left Ballyshannon, Co Donegal for New York with his mother at the tender age of three and became one of the most sought-after sculptors in America.
Enjoy!
Paula Murphy considers the work of acclaimed Irish-American sculptor Thomas Crawford
Margarita Cappock visits an exhibition that explores artists’ lived experience of becoming – or not becoming – a mother, in all its intricacy
Francis Halsall finds in Atsushi Kaga’s paintings an aesthetic influenced by Japanese culture, European art and everyday life
Emer McGarry offers insights into works included in the thematic exhibition ‘Inheritance’
Robert Armstrong remembers the painter Michael Cullen, whose work is celebrated in an exhibition in the Waterford Gallery of Art
Philip Quinn tells Eamonn Maxwell his sculptures are maps of the memories and landscapes of his childhood
Cristín Leach talks to painter Brian Harte about his new exhibition and how Instagram led to sudden international success
Yvonne Scott celebrates some seminal works in the practice of artist Kathy Prendergast
Yvette Monahan’s images, with their reticent grace, draw us into a strange, charmed and fragile world, writes Stephanie McBride
Artist Joe Dunne tells Aidan Dunne that when painting goes well, he gets into a meditative state and is out of time, in infinity, or perhaps in no time at all
Peter Murray looks at the work of artist Charles Collins and finds that his paintings are comparable to those of
his European peers
Roger Stalley considers the history and architecture of Ireland’s largest medieval priory, Athassel, County Tipperary
On the bicentenary of his birth, Amélie Dochy appraises Erskine Nicol’s paintings of mid-19th-century Ireland
Lancelot Bayly was a painter of distinction and one of the better-known watercolourists of his time working in Ireland, writes Tom Duffy
Sarah McAuliffe selects a photograph by Evelyn Hofer (1922–2009) in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland
