'Alive, alive O!'

Press Release, June 2003

Exhibition of Dublin street life to celebrate opening of ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art from June 19th in the National Gallery of Ireland.

To celebrate the opening on June 19th of the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art, the Gallery has organised an exhibition entitled 'Alive alive O!'-Dublin Street Life 1750-1900' which goes on public display in the Print Gallery from June 19th through 24th August 2003. Admission is Free.

The exhibition chronicles street life in a changing city over one and a half centuries, through maps, prospects, topographical and idealized views, and studies of individual characters. It records the vibrancy and grandeur of the capital as well as the hardship endured by Dublin's more disenfranchised and indigent population.

The focal point of the exhibition is the remarkable album of drawings of Dublin hawkers and other characters by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740-1808) entitled The Cries of Dublin &c, produced in 1760 when the artist was just twenty years of age. As well as Hamilton, other artists represented include Joseph Tudor, John James Barralet, James Malton, George Petrie, Samuel Lover and Walter Osborne. A colour brochure written by Dr. Brendan Rooney, Administrator of the CSIA, will accompany the exhibition.

ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art
The centre, which comprises a custom-built reading room located in the Millennium Wing, will promote and facilitate the study of Irish Art and associated disciplines through the provision of documentation in various media. Among the resources that will be made available to users will be the Gallery's existing archive material (manuscripts, photographs, exhibition catalogues and other ephemera) associated with individual artists, groups or institutions. The Centre is dedicated to the memory of Walter Strickland who was Registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1894 to 1915, and compiler of the eponymous 'Dictionary of Irish Artists'.

Access to the ESB CSIA is by appointment only.
Contact: Dr. Brendan Rooney, Administrator
Email brooney@ngi.ie

Note to Editors:
The ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art and its inaugural exhibition will be formally opened on June 18th by Dr. Brian Allen, Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art in London, and Adjunct Professor of History of Art at Yale University. He is a leading expert on 18th century British and Irish art. He has recently been appointed Chairman of the National Art Collections Fund in Britain.

For further information, contact: Valerie Keogh
Press & Communications Office
Tel. (01) 663 3598 or Email: press@ngi.ie