New Book Released by Theme Member Róisín Kennedy
Posted 9 April 2021
Róisín Kennedy Art and the Nation State. The Reception of Modern Art in Ireland, Liverpool University Press, 2021
Modern Art was the subject of wide debate and controversy in Ireland from the 1920s and 1970s. It conveyed important and conflicting ideas about national identity and provided access to a major manifestation of European culture. The lack of official institutional support by the new Irish state meant that private individuals and interest groups had a key role in advocating Modern Art. Drawing on media coverage, reviews, writings and the private papers of key Irish and international artists, critics and commentators, Art and the Nation State explores the significant contribution of modern art to post-independence cultural debate and diverging notions of Irish national identity. Through an analysis of significant controversies and debates such as that surrounding the Cubist inspired work of Mainie Jellett, Georges Rouault’s Christ and the Soldier to the Rosc exhibitions of 1967 and 1971, the book examines how the reception of the work of major Irish and leading international artists in Ireland was moulded by the prevailing demands of national identity, modernization and the impact of the wider art world on Irish critics, collectors and institutions.
Author Biography
Róisín Kennedy is a Lecturer in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy. She is former Yeats Curator at the National Gallery of Ireland and former curator of the State Collection at Dublin Castle. She is co-editor and contributor to Harry Clarke and Artistic Visions of the New Irish State, (Irish Academic Press, 2018) and Censoring Art. Silencing the Artwork (I.B. Tauris, 2018). She is co-editor with Fintan Cullen, Sources in Irish Art 2. A Reader, forthcoming, Cork University Press.
Listen to the Book Launch here: