Posted: 07 Mar 2012 Art Knowledge News
Dublin, Ireland - While many contemporary artists have found inspiration in
Beckett’s drama, the emphasis of this exhibition is to look at the influence
that art and artists had on his life and work. Beginning with his visits
to the National Gallery of Ireland as a young student and later lecturer at
Trinity College Dublin, the exhibition reveals three key relationships in the
writer’s life; his relationship with the Gallery where, in the words of
biographer James Knowlson, Beckett was ‘weaned on the old masters’; with poet,
art critic and former Director, Thomas MacGreevy; and with Jack B. Yeats.
Bringing together
over 40 works of art drawn from the National Gallery’s collection as
well as public and private collections in Ireland and abroad, the exhibition
features familiar names from the 14th century to the present day,
such as Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Perugino, Albrecht Dürer, Nicolas Poussin,
Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Jack B. Yeats, Alberto Giacometti, Bram van Velde,
Avigdor Arikha, Henri Hayden and Stanley William Hayter. The exhibition
also investigates his experiences of art in London, Germany and Paris. On
exhibition until 17 September, 2006.
On show together for the first
time are a number of works by artists whom Beckett knew and befriended; Henri
Hayden (Vue sur Signy Signets) Jack B. Yeats (A Morning, Regatta
Evening and Cornerboys); Avigdor Arikha (The Golden Calf), and a
number of compositions by Bram and Geer van Velde.
Fionnuala Croke, Head of Exhibitions,
says that central to the show is the correspondence between Beckett and his
Kerry-born friend, Thomas MacGreevy, whom he met in Paris in 1928 and who later
became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland (1950-1963). It
was MacGreevy who introduced Beckett to James Joyce and other prominent writers
and painters of the day. The two men became life-long friends and wrote
to each other regularly. From that correspondence, drawn from the
Manuscripts Department in Trinity College Dublin, we get an unrivalled picture
of Beckett’s developing interest in art.
The exhibition also has on
display a number of ‘livres d’artistes’ or artists’ books where some of the
most innovative responses to Beckett’s work can be found. Each of the
artists’ books are collaborations or dialogues of word and image between
Beckett and artists, such as Louis le Brocquy (Stirrings Still), Avigdor
Arikha (Au Loin un Oiseau), Stanley William Hayter (Still),
Dellas Henke (4 original etchings from ‘Waiting for Godot’), and Charles
Klabunde (The Lost Ones) .
The artistic aspect to Beckett
is explored in detail in the accompanying publication, Samuel Beckett: a
passion for paintings with an introduction by Fionnuala Croke and Dr.
Riann Coulter, and essays by leading international and Irish scholars: Nicholas
Allen, James Knowlson, David Lloyd, Lois Oppenheim and Susan Schreibman.
Visit The National Gallery
of Ireland at : www.nationalgallery.ie
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