Dr. Abdul Bulbulia, NGI Board, David Niland, President, Galway Chamber of Commerce, Declan Bree, Assistant Mayor, Sligo, Bernadette O’Shea, Chair, The Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo, Donal Tinney, Librarian, Sarah Glennie, Director, The Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo, Raymond Keaveney, Director, NGI, Dr. Róisín Kennedy, Yeats Curator (NGI Fellowship Scholar), Lochlann Quinn, Chairman, NGI Board.

National Gallery of Ireland exhibits special selection of Jack Yeats paintings on loan from the Niland Collection, Sligo.

Press Release March 2008

- Jack B. Yeats: Highlights from The Model Arts and Niland Gallery
8 March - 30 November 2008
Yeats Museum. Admission free.

The redevelopment this year of The Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo presents an opportunity for the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin to exhibit a selection of works by Jack B. Yeats from the wonderful Niland Collection.

Included in the display are eleven paintings by Yeats, among them two early masterpieces in oil depicting scenes of the Civil War, 'The Funeral of Harry Boland' (1922), and 'Communicating with Prisoners' (c.1924), as well as later works such as 'Leaving the Far Point' (1946) which the artist presented to Sligo Corporation shortly before his death. There are also paintings echoing the artist's love of the sea in 'Sailor Home from the Sea', (1912) and 'The Sea and the Lighthouse' (1947), alongside 'Singing The Minstrel Boy' (1923); 'A Western Town, Night' (1925); 'White Shower' (1928); 'The Graveyard Wall' (1945), and 'Mountain Window', (1946).

Raymond Keaveney, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, thanked Sligo County Council for generously lending the works: "Having this special group of Jack B.Yeats paintings on loan from The Niland Collection is a fitting tribute to the artist, who was brought up in Sligo and always retained fond memories and strong emotional ties with this part of the country ", he added.

"We are delighted to bring this outstanding collection of Jack B. Yeats paintings from Sligo to Dublin so that new audiences can enjoy these exceptionally important works," says Sarah Glennie, Director, The Model Arts and Niland Gallery.

Curated by Dr. Róisín Kennedy (NGI Fellowship Scholar), the exhibition is presented in collaboration with The Model Arts and Niland Gallery. It opens in the Gallery's Yeats Museum on March 8th and continues until November 30th, 2008. Admission is free.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Supplementary information attached. A select number of digital images are available to accompany reviews of the exhibition.

Contact:
Valerie Keogh/ Emma Pearson
Press & Communications Office
National Gallery of Ireland
Telephone (01) 663 3598/ 663 3519
Email press@ngi.ie

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Niland Collection
The Niland Collection is named in honour of its founder, Nora Niland, the former county librarian in Sligo. A graduate of English and Irish literature, she came to the town from her native Galway in 1945. In the late 1950s, she was involved in the setting up of the W.B. Yeats International Summer School in Sligo. She recognised the central role of Sligo to the work of both W.B. Yeats, and his brother Jack. Through her efforts Sligo Corporation acquired significant holdings of material relating to the Yeats family.

The Niland Collection of Jack Yeats paintings originated in 1954 when the artist presented the painting Leaving the Far Point to Sligo Corporation. His accompanying letter to the Mayor of Sligo proclaimed: "from the beginning of my painting life every painting which I have made has somewhere in it a thought of Sligo."

In 1962 Nora Niland managed to raise £3000 by public subscription to purchase three of Yeats's most renowned works, The Funeral of Harry Boland, Communicating with Prisoners and An Island Funeral. These key works belonged to the Capuchin Annual and had been brought to public attention in the pages of the popular journal through the writings of Thomas MacGreevy. MacGreevy, a long time friend of Yeats, and former director of the National Gallery of Ireland, lent and later presented, one of his own Yeats paintings, Singing 'The Minstrel Boy' to the Niland Collection. These core works were added to during the course of the 1960s largely through donations from, amongst others, the Abbey producer, Ria Mooney, the Irish-American bibliophile, James A. Healy and the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland.

The Jack B. Yeats paintings were housed together with other Yeats family material and artworks in a special room in Sligo County Library. In 1973 the Yeats paintings were put on display in a gallery on the first floor of the former Congregational Church in Sligo where they became a major cultural tourist attraction to visitors to the town. In 2001 the Model Arts and Niland Gallery opened in the refurbished Model school building. The Niland Collection which now included works by other modern Irish artists formed the nucleus of the gallery's impressive collection of 20th century Irish art. Its holdings of Jack Yeats paintings make it one of the most significant public collections of his art. It is a fitting legacy to the vision of Nora Niland and Sligo Corporation.

Jack B. Yeats: Highlights from The Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo
8 March - 30 November 2008. Admission free.
National Gallery of Ireland (Yeats Museum).
Merrion Square West & Clare Street, Dublin 2.
www.nationalgallery.ie

Gallery Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 9.30am-5.30pm; Thursday 5.30pm-8.30pm. Sunday 12.00pm-5.30pm. Closed Good Friday & 24-26 December.