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First testimonies

Ireland only welcomed its first occupants around 6000 BC. It is still necessary to wait a little to find the first stone sculptures. North of Dublin, the petroglyphs of the Newgrange site are dated to 3000 BC. The engravings encircling the mound are interpreted as the first recorded map of the moon.

During the Iron Age, the production of tools and weapons was strongly influenced by the arrival of the Celts. A people of silversmiths and blacksmiths, they brought the famous Celtic designs: the spiral, the interlacing and the cross. These three motifs will inspire the whole history of Irish visual art. Because of its remote location, Ireland escaped the colonization of Rome. Thus, the Celtic culture persists through its motifs, its oral tradition and its mythology.

Christian Era

After the fall of the Roman Empire, while Europe was getting bogged down, the religious authorities chose Ireland as a base for spreading Christianity. Thus, around 450, Saint Patrick was sent as a missionary. His success led to the Christianization of Ireland. The creation of centers of religious and secular scholarship, in monasteries, set the stage for the development of Irish visual art. In these centers, illuminated manuscripts reached excellence. Christian calligraphy meets Celtic art magnificently. On the ornate panels, animals intertwine in Celtic patterns, among spirals, faces, and gold and silver chasing. The monasteries played a crucial role in cultural life until the 13th century

Irish Renaissance

Art declines from 1200 to 1700. In painting, the Renaissance began in 1650 and lasted until 1830.

In the 18th century, a century of prosperity, the first artistic institutions were founded: the Royal Dublin Society (1731) and the Royal Irish Academy (1785). A few talented painters emerged in the fields of portraiture and landscape.

The art of portraiture took off in Ireland at the turn of the 18th century. If most of the portraitists were anonymous, a few names have come down to us: Garret Morphy, Thomas Bate and the master of the genre, Charles Jervas. The next generation is represented by James Barry, Martin Archer Shee and William Mulready. Many left in search of professional opportunities in England.

For landscape, the first painters who stood out were Susanna Drury (1698-1770), John Butts (1728-1764) and George Barret Senior (ca. 1730-1784). The romantic Thomas Sautelle Roberts (ca. 1749-1778) was a notable influence. Likewise, the Brocas family, Henry Brocas Senior (c. 1766-1838) and his sons exerted considerable influence through the school of landscape painting they directed.

Beginning of the modern era

Although the pictorial Renaissance continued into the 19th century, Irish artists immigrated en masse. Irish patrons were rare, all the more so as London's potential attracted them: a developing market, places for creation and exhibition. The sculptors Patrick MacDowell, John Foley and John Hughes had a successful career in London. Some painters preferred to go to France, Barbizon or Pont-Aven, where they trained in outdoor painting in the manner of the Impressionists.

Two events marked the beginning of the 20th century: the creation in 1908 of the Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art and the independence of the Irish state which took shape in the early 1920s. However, pictorial innovation was not quite there. Commissions for traditional busts occupied the main sculptors. The 1940s were dominated by the conservatism of the Royal Hibernian Academy. The RHA deliberately blocked the innovative European trends such as Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism. For four decades, the country's economic and political situation did not provide a favorable environment for artistic dynamism. But in the mid-1960s, there was a clear opening to the international scene.

In the 1990s, the increase in the budget allocated to the arts completely reshaped the landscape. In 1990, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) took over from the Hugh Lane Gallery. Among the projects launched were two new galleries: the Naughton Gallery at Queens University of Belfast (opened in 2001) and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery at University College of Cork (2004).

Over the past two decades, Irish art has gained prominence in the contemporary art market. In 2014, Francis Bacon's triptych,Three Studies by Lucian Freud

became the most expensive work ever sold at auction (105 million euros). Six other Irish painters broke the million-euro mark. In 2016, the photo of a potato on a black background, taken by Irish artist Kevin Abosch was sold for €1 million. It thus enters the clan of the 20 most expensive photos in history. Kevin Abosch is also known for his portraits of personalities on a black background.

Francis Bacon (1909-1992)

Figurative painter born in Dublin of English parents, he did not follow a classical schooling because of his fragile health and his excessive shyness. Private teachers taught him drawing and painting at home. At the age of twenty, wealthy men took him under their wing. Bacon was first noticed for his drawings of furniture and carpets, without however turning away from painting and his master, Picasso. He drew his inspiration in particular from the Spanish master's Les Baigneuses and Le Baiser. Surrealism also marked his early years. He sold his first oil on canvas in 1933, the Crucifixion. The following year, he presented his first solo exhibition at the Transition Gallery. At that time, he destroyed many of his works and painted little until 1944 when he intensely revived his art. His compositions, of a sensual expressionism, became more tortured and violent. His characters suffer in a captivating chaos, caught in swirls of sharp and carnal colors. Three Studies on the Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion was first exhibited in 1945. This work prefigures the characteristics of the style that made Bacon famous. Distortions, open mouth, triptych composition. The following year, he painted the famous Painting in which a meat carcass can be seen, a reminder of the young Bacon's fascination with butcher shops. His works met with success abroad. In 1953, he had his first solo exhibition in New York. During this decade, Bacon created 45 variations of Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X . In the 1960s, the Bacon retrospective organized by the London Tate Gallery travels through Europe. Bacon died of a heart attack in 1992 in Madrid. The entire mess of his London studio was bequeathed to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. The Hugh Lane also brings together French impressionists (Monet, Degas, Renoir, Corot, Manet, Millet, Puvis de Chavannes) as well as Irish: Roderic O'Conor, Walter Osborne, Frank O'Meara and John Lavery.

Contemporary art in Dublin

The municipality invests like never before in the promotion of today's artists. Where to meet the current scene? First of all by strolling in the streets. Then, some places have been selected to guide you.

In Belfast, street art has become a tourist attraction since the end of the conflict and the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998. The western part of Belfast as well as the Bogside area of Derry/Londonderry, attract thousands of visitors every year. For the anecdote, the first public mural in Belfast appeared in 1908! On Beersbridge, the painting showed William III returning victorious on his white horse. Needless to say, it did not go unnoticed.

In Dublin, street art has been growing in popularity in recent years. The facades of the Camden Street district are witnesses of it. The practice is getting organized and officialized. The association Evolve Urban Art ensures the link between the community and the artists through street art projects. Among the realizations that they directed, the fifteen frescos executed in the area of the Guinness Museum. The artist Maser was already painting on the walls of Dublin in 1995, when the practice was still underground. His works proclaim loud and clear his political commitments. Another spirit, a collective, hidden under the name of Subset, rages in large format in the streets. For the feminine touch, Anna Doran enlivens this mostly male scene with her original designs. Her colorful creations run along sidewalks and walls. And now look out for works by Solus, Fitan Switzer, El Viz, Joe Caslin and James Earley!

On the enclosed side, the Irish Museum of Modern Art is the nation's premier institution for contemporary art. IMMA's collection includes modern and contemporary art by Irish and international artists. Recently, Canadian photographic artist Stan Douglas had his first solo exhibition in Ireland.

The venerable Royal Hibernian Academy

has undergone significant changes since its founding in 1823. It now promotes traditional and innovative visual arts in its five galleries.

Fringe Lab brings together live art, meeting places and exhibition spaces. Its primary mission is to support emerging artists. The crucible of tomorrow's stars! Another space dedicated to emerging creation, The Lab combines all artistic fields. Located in the historic district of Monto, it organizes all kinds of events, including temporary exhibitions.

Perhaps the most iconic address in Dublin, The Green on Red Gallery exhibits established artists from here and elsewhere: Gerard Byrne, Damien Flood or Nigel Rolfe. The perfect stop to feel the energy of the moment.