UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Thursday, 5 September 2019 at 5.30 pm
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR KATHLEEN JAMES-CHAKRABORTY, School of Art History and Cultural Policy on 5 September 2019, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa on CATHERINE MARSHALL.
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President, distinguished guests, graduates, ladies and gentlemen
Catherine Marshall grew up in Kilkenny where she learned to draw and to paint. She came up to Dublin to study English Literature and History here at University College Dublin and then Art History at Trinity College.
Although an inspiring teacher here, at Trinity, and at the National College of Art and Design, throughout her career as a leading historian of first twentieth- and now also twenty-first century Irish art, Marshall has spent most of her career outside the classroom, organizing pioneering exhibitions in museums and galleries across the country and around the world. In 1995 she became the founding Head of Collections at the newly established Irish Museum of Modern Art. One of the highlights of her time as a curator came when an exhibition she organised, Views from an Island: Contemporary Irish Art from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, travelled to both Beijing and Shanghai. Others could be viewed in Canada and the United States.
Marshall’s contribution as a curator is matched by her productiveness as a scholar. When my colleagues Nicola Figgis and Paula Murphy expanded the scope of what became The Art and Architecture of Ireland, the Royal Irish Academy turned to her to co-edit the volume on the twentieth-century. Co-published in 2014 by the Royal Irish Academy and Yale University Press, this widely acclaimed project immediately became the standard reference work on the subject. Nor is this the only means Marshall has had for drawing attention to the work of talented contemporary Irish artists. Throughout her career she has written insightfully about the Irish art of the past and championed the best of the present. Just this summer a book was released that she co-edited with Mary Ryder a book on the sculptor Janet Mullarney.
Art history has never been for Marshall a matter of pretty pictures or sculptures. From Sarah Purser and Francoise Henry, through Marshall’s own Anne Crookshank to Marshall herself, the Irish art and art history community has been led by forceful women as well as men. Onto to this rich history Marshall, the granddaughter of a TD, has layered an overtly feminist passion for social justice. When the famous American artists collective the Guerrilla Girls came to Ireland in 2010, it was, of course, Marshall who shared the podium with them here at UCD. And while at IMMA, she championed the inclusion of what is termed “outsider art,” as well as empowering secondary school students to share in the work of curation.
Marshall’s dedication to building a more inclusive society has manifested itself as well in her dedication to expanding the audience for the visual arts as well as broadening the definition of who is an artist. In recognition of the importance of bringing outstanding art to communities across Ireland, she was seconded in 2007 to the Arts Council as an advisor to its Touring Experiment. Later, she collaborated with Fintan O’Toole and Eibhear Walshe in editing Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks, which was published as a series of columns in the Irish Times, where it reached an audience much larger than those who would ordinarily be exposed to the latest art history scholarship, as well as in 2016 in book form. Marshall, who carves out the time to contribute energetically to the many good causes in which she believes, has served as a board member not only of the Douglas Hyde and Butler Galleries, but also of Common Ground, a Dublin organisation committed to the role of the arts and culture in urban regeneration, and currently chairs Bealtaine, anational festival celebrating age and opportunity, which is committed to “an Ireland where all older people are more active, more visible, more creative,” and “more connected.” It is dedicated to the work of artists from the Killkenny Collective for Arts Talent (KCAT), an arts centre in her native county Kilkenny on whose board she sits, that believes “that everyone, regardless of background, age, gender or ability should have access to the creative world – as students, participants, artists or audiences.” No one in Ireland has done more to ensure that this is the case than Catherine Marshall.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hanc meam filiam, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in Artibus Optimis; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.