Membership: Your support makes a difference

Stylised, semi-abstract painting of yellow crabs against a blue and grey background.
Anne Yeats (1919-2001), Crayfish, 20th century. © Estate of Anne Yeats, DACS London/IVARO Dublin, 2021. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.Credit

By becoming a Friend or a Patron you are helping the Gallery to acquire works to enrich the national collection, to display world-class exhibitions, and to expand awareness and appreciation of the visual arts.

Read on discover the exhibitions and acquisitions that the Friends and Patrons have supported.

 

2021 support
Oil painting of Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist
A man in a dark overcoat with his hands in his pockets, wearing a cap. In the background, the sea.
Exhibition

This year, our Friends are supporting the upcoming exhibition Christ and His Cousin: Renaissance Rediscoveries which will introduce the public to sixteenth-century Italian paintings from the collection that have been carefully restored by the Gallery’s Head of Conservation, Simone Mancini, over the past decade.

Research

The Friends are also supporting research in the form of a book which will accompany the forthcoming exhibition Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory. Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of Ireland’s most important artists, this exhibition will explore the role of memory in Jack B. Yeats’ life and work.

Portrait of a young girl wearing a white communion dress, headdress and veil.
John Lavery (1856-1941), Her First Communion (detail), 1901-1902. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.Credit
Acquisitions

In 2018, the Friends and Patrons contributed towards the acquisition of a stunning portrait by John Lavery (1856–1941): Her First Communion, 1901–1902.

In 2017, Anne Yeats’s painting Crayfish (illustrated at the top of the page) was purchased for the national collection with support from the Friends and Patrons.

Both artworks were displayed in the exhibition New Perspectives. Acquisitions 2011–2020 (10 May–2 August 2021).

 

Past exhibitions and research support

An oil painting of a Brazilian landscape with Brazilian animals in the foreground, and sugar mill buildings in the middleground with enslaved people working.
Frans Post (1612–1680), Brazilian Landscape, 1660s
Visitors to Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit. © National Gallery of Ireland.
Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit
Exhibitions

The striking 2019 exhibition Bauhaus 100: The Print Portfolios and the fascinating 2018 exhibition Curious Creatures: Frans Post and Brazil were both supported by the Friends.

Research

Friends support made it possible to publish a book to accompany the 2018 exhibition Making Their Mark: Irish Painter-Etchers and the Etching Revival, as well as the publication for Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit in 2017.

Contact us

If you have any questions about membership of the Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland

contact the Friends team on

+353 (0) 1 661 9877 or [email protected]