Resplendent in its latest reconstruction, the National Gallery of Ireland needs a new and inspiring ‘Mission’ that places Irish art and artists at the centre of its activities, argues John Mulcahy
In the following pages, James Howley surveys the internal rebuilding of the National Gallery of Ireland just completed at a cost of €30 million which he finds ‘now matches the highest museum standards found in some of the greatest galleries in the world’. Coinciding with the gallery’s 150th anniversary, the restoration heralds a new era for the gallery whose continental collection includes many magnificent Italian, French and Dutch old masters. But at a time when the Minister for the Arts has just launched her Creative Ireland initiative which ‘calls on all of us to play a part in placing our rich cultural heritage, and its potential, at the centre of our lives’ why is the work of so many outstanding Irish artists still so poorly represented in the National Gallery of Ireland collection?
Eddie Rafferty’s love affair with Africa is manifest at his first major survey exhibition on view this summer at the FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, writes Riann Coulter.
