‘The Surreal in Irish Art’ opening at the F E McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge, Co Down, in May is the first exhibition to explore the influence of Surrealism on Irish art, writes Riann Coulter
According to a Surrealist map of the world published in the Belgian magazine Variétés in 1929, Ireland was a hotspot for Surrealism. Depicting a distorted cartography that privileged countries that were believed to be naturally sympathetic to Surrealism, the map represented Ireland dwarfing Great Britain. The Free State’s recent independence, plus oral and literary traditions infused with strong veins of fantasy and Celtic mythology, appealed to the Surrealists. The affinities between Surrealism and Irish literature can be traced from Jonathan Swift, who was claimed as a proto-surrealist, via Synge, W B Yeats, Joyce, Beckett and Flann O’Brien, to contemporary authors including Patrick McCabe. Less well known is the extent to which Surrealism influenced, and continues to inspire, Irish art.
David Davidson pays tribute to Bill Doyle, Dublin-born master photographer, who in these fond studies has left an indelible record of his country