Press Release
When Time Began to Rant and Rage: New York, NY, April 23, 1999…A groundbreaking exhibition of Irish painting comes to New York University's Grey Art Gallery this May.
When Time Began to Rant and Rage: Figurative Painting from Twentieth-Century Ireland plays a major role in the collaborative, interdisciplinary celebration of Irish art
and culture taking place in New York this summer. Comprising over sixty paintings drawn from public and private collections in Ireland, the exhibition
provides a major historical survey of Irish twentieth-century figurative art. It is the largest show devoted to Irish painting ever to be held in the United States.
Taking its title from a line in William Butler Yeats's celebrated poem "To Ireland in the Coming Times," When Time Began to Rant and Rage will include paintings by artists from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland, from the Irish Impressionists at the turn of the century to contemporary artists working in a figurative idiom. Among the many artists represented in the show are Sir John Lavery, Paul Henry, Jack B. Yeats,
James Humbert Craig, Sir William Orpen, Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jellett, Nano Reid, Christopher Campbell, Micheal Farrell, and Patrick Graham. Organized chronologically, the exhibition explores, through the power of its
visual images, the forces that helped to shape twentieth-century Ireland. When Time Began to Rant and Rage brings two vital issues to the fore: the constant renegotiation of identity in Ireland, north and south; and the
participation of Irish artists in international art movements. The dialogue between Irishness and internationalism emerges as one key to the deeper understanding of Irish visual culture.
"The issues raised by this exhibition, and in particular the relationship of art making to political change, have implications that reach beyond Ireland's
recent political history," says James Steward, exhibition curator and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor. "It is my hope that When Time Began to Rant and Rage will effect a change in critical
thinking—at least outside of Ireland—on the aesthetic significance of Irish figurative painting, and the extent to which Irish history has informed modern
Irish painting, and Irish painting has contributed to a visualization of what it is to be Irish." "This thought-provoking exhibition is very timely—following, as it does, the
recently approved referendum for peace. It is also particularly appropriate that New York University's Grey Art Gallery serve as the show's East Coast venue," observes Lynn Gumpert, director, "and we are pleased to collaborate
with our colleagues at Glucksman Ireland House on a wide array of educational programs, including a contemporary Irish film festival. This show and its accompanying events will interest not only students and New York's
extensive Irish community but anyone fascinated by aesthetics as well as politics." A companion exhibition, A Measured Quietude: Contemporary Irish Drawings,
on view at The Drawing Center from June 23 through July 30, will focus on nine artists whose works range from the overtly political to the quietly reflective. Jointly organized by The Drawing Center and the Grey Art Gallery,
A Measured Quietude provides a visual counterpoint to the realistic and figurative works at the Grey, presenting contemporary, often abstract images by Irish artists concerned with intimate explorations of the medium of drawing.
Publication The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated color catalogue, which features an introductory essay by curator James Steward and nine additional
essays by noted authorities on Irish art and cultural life, including Sighle Bhreathnach-Lynch (University College, Dublin), Marianne Hartigan, Kenneth McConkey (University of Northumbria, Newcastle), Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith
(University College, Dublin), Peter Murray (Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork), and Colm Toíbín. Paper: $29.95. Sponsorship When Time Began to Rant and Rage: Figurative Painting from
Twentieth-Century Ireland is organized by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, dedicated to expanding American
understanding of human experience and cultural heritage. Additional funding has been provided by the American Ireland Fund; the British Council in conjunction with the Department of Education, Northern Ireland; and the
Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin. The Grey Art Gallery presentation has been made possible with the help of Glucksman Ireland House at New York University and with support from Martin and Carmel Naughton, The Cultural
Relations Committee of Ireland/Comhar Cultúra Eireann, Allied Irish Bank, The Country Bank, O'Sullivan Antiques, Aer Lingus, the Abby Weed Grey Trust, and generous private funding.
Figurative Painting from Twentieth-Century Ireland
May 25 – July 24, 1999