Online Art Appreciation Course: For the Love of Modernism

For the Love of Modernism with Jessica Fahy

Our 8-week evening courses are the perfect way to learn more about art. Discover little-known works from the Gallery’s collection, get to know old favourites in more depth, and explore other great collections of the world with our expert art historians and guest speakers.

Course dates:

• Tuesday evenings, 6pm -7.15pm
• 7 October - 2 December (with a break on 28 October)  
• Tickets: €150 - available here
• 20% discount for Friends of the Gallery
• 10% discount Over 65’s/unwaged/students

Buying this course as a gift? 

Once you have purchased the ticket, contact [email protected] to confirm the name of the recipient, and we will ensure they are sent all correspondence. If you would like us to send them an e-mail confirming that this was purchased as a gift for them, we can also do this.

About the course: 

This course will examine the relationship between the Irish state and the advent of Modernism in the visual arts. It can certainly be described as a difficult adjustment with a reluctance by the Irish state and the art institutions to support Modernist artists. In the first few decades of the Free State and Irish Republic many artworks were see as unaccomplished or even corrupting due to the rejection of the Academic style by the artist. The ideas around ‘proper’ art were not just about expected levels of skill in naturalism or realism but also moralistic. It would seem that the Irish public were not trusted to make up their own minds or to be able to understand or be confronted with this new art. Yet on an international stage, it was often the most avant-garde artist chosen to represent Ireland - arguably as this new nation wanted to be seen as a modern and progressive country. 

The first Rosc exhibition in 1967 brought works by the most important artists from around the world to Dublin, and included ancient Irish artworks, but no contemporary Irish Artists. Living artists were eventually included, which was followed by a boom in state-funded commissions, which were not always well received by the public - an opinion still heard today. 

About the tutor:

Jessica Fahy is a freelance Art Historian. She is on the lecturer and guide panels for the National Gallery of Ireland, UCD Access and Lifelong Learning Centre and the Hugh Lane Gallery. She gives talks and tours across Ireland, abroad and online on all areas of Western Art from the 14th century to the present day.  She is a regular contributor on RTÉ radio for Arena. She has a MLitt in Art History from UCD where she also received her undergraduate degree with English as her joint major. She completed her MA in Italian Renaissance Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2007.

Course outline: 

Week 1 | 7 October - New Art for a New Nation?
In the first session, we look at the Irish Free State and the art institutions art policies, education programs, the press and the reactions to modernism.

Week 2 | 14 October - Outside influence
Looking at the ways Irish artists interacted with modern art movements through travel and education abroad as well as artist or their work coming to Ireland from the Loan exhibition of 1899 to the White Stag group during the Emergency. 

Week 3 | 21 October - Artists on the Edge 
An examination of the formation and development of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and the art of its members.

No session on 28 October

Week 4 | 4 November - Artists on an International Stage
Tracing the participation of Irish artists in international exhibitions in Europe and beyond, from diplomatic gifts to international expositions to the Venice Biennale.

Week 5 | 11 November - Bringing Modern Art to Ireland
The importance and impact of the government-endorsed Rosc exhibition, which brought modern art to Ireland officially.

Week 6 | 18 November - Politics and the Arts 
Guest Speaker: Professor Kevin Rafter, Full Professor of Political Communication, Dublin City University 
In this lecture, Kevin Rafter will draw on his book Taoisigh and the Arts (2022) to look afresh at major political figures in post-1922 Ireland through the work of writers and visual artists, and examine the legacy of national leaders while considering the priority these politicians placed on the arts during their time in office. Taoisigh and the Arts was described as ‘consistently entertaining and informative’ in the Dublin Review of Books and as ‘a gripping history of the State’s treatment of artists and writers’ in the Irish Independent. A review in Books Ireland said it ‘should be in the in-tray of all Irish politicians.’

Week 7 | 25 November - 'The People's Home; Irish and European Architecture 1940 - 1980'
Guest Speaker: David Jameson, Architect
In this session, architect David Jameson will provide an overview of the major modern architectural movements in Europe and contemporary developments in Ireland in the post-war period.

Week 8 | 2 December -  Modernism(s) and the Irish
Guest speaker: Catherine Marshall, Art historian and Curator 
Ireland's relationship to international culture was dominated by two things; the country's history of colonisation and its geographic isolation. Combined, they led to a determination to assert its new nationhood and a conflict between that need and its desire to actively participate in the rapidly-changing world of the twentieth century. For artists it meant forging a role at home as well as an international presence both of which were essential for the future of the visual arts in Ireland. This overview will look at their successes and failures and their impact on a new century.