Irish Arts Review

Paintings from Poland: Symbolism to Modern Art (1880-1939)Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring, 2008), p. 142Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20493296 .

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At n-b

Patrick Hall: Drawings IMMA, Dublin, 2007

pp.158, p/b, 90 ills in col & b/w

_29.95 ISBN:978-1-903811-77-1

Readability: *****

Reference: **** r

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: *****

This is a survey of almost one hundred of

Patrick Hall's drawings, made during the

last fifteen years. The artist, often brack

eted with Brian Maguire and Paddy

Graham during the 1980s, is one of the

most complex of living Irish artists. IMMA now seem to have got into their

stride in terms of producing catalogues, especially for Irish artists. This one con

tains two essays, one by the New York

critic Michele C Cone, and one by Karim

White which gets closest to beginning to

explain the profoundly metaphysical aspects of his work. There is also a solid

iP a* interview by Karen Sweeney, which is

complemented by a CV, and a chronolog

ical list of works, referenced to the illus

trations. Worth buying.

Miroslaw Balka, Tristes Tropiques IMMA, Dublin, 2007

pp. 140, numerous b/w ills

634.95 ISBN: 978-1-903811-78-9

Readability: *****

Reference: *** r

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: *** r *

Balka is a Polish artist, born near Warsaw

in 1958 who has exhibited widely over

the last fifteen years. The work is almost

austerely minimalist and conceptual, though both essays in the book (by

Juncosa and Mac Giolla Leith) are at

pains to convince us that it is deeply

autobiographical and redolent of Poland's troubled political history. Maybe. Oddly enough, the design, by a London firm,

and the printing, by a Netherlandish one,

mimic the run-down, poor quality cata

logues of Polish art institutions in the

1980 and 1990s by using heavy unsur

faced paper, with the result that the visu

als as well as the rest of the book have

that grey, grainy, flattened out look that

one associates with newspaper print.

There is a brief CV and a checklist of

works cross-indexed to the illustrations.

Eddie Kennedy Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, 2007

pp. 56, c.40 col. ills oblong h/b

620.00 ISBN: 978-0-9556736-0-3

Readability: *****

Reference: *****

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: *****

This is a very attractive little catalogue

which contains a forward by Donald

Teskey, a helpful essay by Aidan Dunne,

and a really good interview with the

artist by Paddy McGovern. The artist,

who lived in the USA for a while, makes

work loosely based on landscape and

seascape. There is a short CV but no list

of illustrations.

Paintings from Poland: Symbolism to Modern Art (1 880-1939) National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2007

pp. 203, c. 70 col. ills large format p/b

E625.00 ISBN: 978-1-904288-27-5

Readability: *****

Reference: ****

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: ****

In theory this exhibition and book are

focused on the Symbolist period and its

immediate aftermath, up to the late 1930s.

What comes across most strongly is that

Polish artists, irrespective of what style they are working in, tend to have real 'content'.

Whether they are exploring the Polish psy

che (its 'national' consciousness) or them

selves, whether looking at landscape or

narrative or creating a fantasy, there are

always subtexts, often political ones. The

catalogue wants to separate Symbolism

from Expressionism and so forth but this

seems unlikely in the sense that there is a

clear desire to express something, whether coded or not, and this aspect runs through

Polish art, even up to the recent present,

and especially during the Solidarity period. Much of the work is more properly called

Fantasy rather than Symbolism in that it is

rooted in flights of the imagination which take wing from myth and fairy-tale.

Interestingly (though not explored in the catalogue) there are strong connections to Irish art, and especially the Northern vari

ety (from Middleton to Pakenham) and

even more surprisingly, there is little refer ence to religion, even though it is perfectly clear that the Polish Church (right wing,

politically coded, often at odds with its

artists) is clearly a major influence upon

the work. There is a short bibliography but

no list of illustrations, and a short essay on

each illustration.

Robert Bordo: Blind Spot Rubicon Gallery, Dublin, 2007

unpaginated, 15 col. ills. Small oblong h/b

F30.00 ISBN: 978-0-9554084-4-1

Readability: *****

Reference: ** n

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: *****

This is an elegant, somewhat over

designed catalogue for the Canadian

painter Robert Bordo who studied in New

York under Philip Guston and who wish

es to 'integrate an essentially abstract

painting language with themes and

metaphors that reflect my interest in landscape, modernist painting and mem ory'. Short useful essay by Aidan Dunne,

plus CV, but no list of works. -

BRIAN McAVERA is an art critic.

1 4 2 1 I1R I S 11 AR 1 TS R E V I E-, W S P R I N GJ 2 00 8

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