The RHA’s exhibition indicates that the term ‘abstract’ now encompasses a broad church of artistic endeavour, writes Aidan Dunne
The title of the RHA’s new exhibition of abstract art, ‘In and of Itself’, recalling Frank Stella’s famous Minimalist decree, ‘What you see is what you see’, might suggest that the show is aiming for a strict, autonomous view of abstraction in the work included. In the event, curator Patrick Murphy’s approach is anything but prescriptive. Rather, the exhibition comes across as an attempt to acknowledge that, one could say, abstraction isn’t what it used to be. Or at least not what it was often assumed to be. That’s one task it sets out to accomplish.
Joseph McBrinn charts the history of Evie Hone’s Tullabeg windows, which illustrate scenes from the life of Christ
Brian Fallon remembers a modest exhibition that began a love affair with the work of Harry Kernof
Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch remembers a leading member of the Celtic Revival, artist Mia Cranwill
