2
Irish Arts Review Imagining Ireland: The Collection of Drawings and Watercolours by John Butler Yeats and Jack B Yeats Review by: Brian McAvera Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 21, No. 2 (Summer, 2004), p. 144 Published by: Irish Arts Review Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503065 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 20:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Irish Arts Review (2002-). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.253 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:56:47 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Imagining Ireland: The Collection of Drawings and Watercolours by John Butler Yeats and Jack B Yeats

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Imagining Ireland: The Collection of Drawings and Watercolours by John Butler Yeats and Jack B Yeats

Irish Arts Review

Imagining Ireland: The Collection of Drawings and Watercolours by John Butler Yeats andJack B YeatsReview by: Brian McAveraIrish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 21, No. 2 (Summer, 2004), p. 144Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503065 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 20:56

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Irish Arts Review(2002-).

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.253 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:56:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Imagining Ireland: The Collection of Drawings and Watercolours by John Butler Yeats and Jack B Yeats

CO

CATALOGUES

^*?ti?i?!y?iiLstyff

>ne Hundred Years of Watercolours

A Vision of Modern Art: In Memory of Dorothy Walker IMMA Dublin

2004_

pp 56 Card covers. Large format ills 23 col

ills4b/w 14.00 ISBN:1-903811-28-7

Readability: ****&

Reference Use: **-?WWV

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: _

This is an elegantly-produced catalogue,

accompanying the exhibition curated by

Ciaran Bennet to celebrate the achieve

ments of the art critic Dorothy Walker,

which is poorly served by its editors.

There is a foreword by the museum's

director Enrique Juncosa, a reprint from

Hibernia of Walker's credo as an art critic,

and a fluent essay by Bennett which is

obviously a labour of love. There is also a

somewhat laboured essay by Donald

Kuspit. The paper is excellent, the plates

beautifully produced but in classic annoy

ing fashion, there is an un-numbered list

of plates, and the catalogue is unpagi

nated. With five editors credited, this is

disapointing.

High Falutin Stuff IMMA, Dublin

2004_

pp.20. Card covers. Slim tall octavo

pamphlet. 16 plates in colour and mono.

5.00 ISBN: 1-903811-31-7

Readability: *****

Reference Use: ic?r?r?rk

Design & Durability: ***~fr^r

Quality of Plates: **^WV_

This is a rather odd footnote to the Joyce

industry, based entirely on artworks

made in response to Joyce that are in

IMMA's collection. There are two help

ful essays by Terence Killeen and

Catherine Marshall, but it has to be said

that as a response to the centenary

anniversary of Bloomsday, this is a very

niggardly footnote. A fair bit of the text

is taken up with Richard Hamilton,

although there is reason to question just

how closely that artist has read and under

stood Ulysses; and although Killeen at

least briefly acknowledges elements of

this, Marshall does not. Why is it that in

areas like these, the French and the

Americans in particular can produce well

researched, substantial catalogues-but we

can't? No list of plates, no index, no bib

liography, no artist CVs.

Imaging Ireland: Selected Works Arts Office, National University of Ireland, Galway

and Galway University Foundation 2004

pp.84 Card wraps. Large format, ills 30 col

23.00 ISBN: 0-9546815-0-9

Readability: *****

Reference Use: *****

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates:

This is an impressive volume, compiled

and edited by Gerard O'Brien and

Siobhan Piercy, which does the job prop

erly. There is a well-written overview of

the collection by Peter Murray, which

gives the socio-political context (he's been

busy this past year!), a brief history of the

collection by O'Brien, thirty fine plates

each with facing commentary, as well as a

bibliography and a preface. Both artists

and plates are indexed, though cross-ref

erencing the plates would have helped. It's

true that the bibliography is very hit-and

miss but that's a small price to pay for an

otherwise first-class volume.

One Hundred Years of Watercolours Jorgensen Fine Art Dublin 2004

pp 48 Square format Card covers 57 col.

plates. 10.00

Readability: ***^r

Reference Use: ****-&

Design & Durability: ****^

Quality of Plates: &

Neatly organised with a numbered list of

illustrations corresponding to the num

bered plates. Primarily UK and Irish

artists, ranging from Rose Barton and

Mildred Anne Butler to William Lee

Hankey and Gwen John, though there are

a smattering of European names like

Signac. Also contains a one-page intro

ductory note, presumably by Sile

Connaughton-Deeny. Basically a dealer's

selling catalogue but attractively pro

duced. No ISBN number.

William Crozier Taylor Galleries Dublin 2004

pp 35 p/b Square format ills 23 col ills 6

b/w 5.00

Readability: *****

Reference Use: *?WWWV

Design & Durability: *****

Quality of Plates: ***^r_

This is a well-produced catalogue with

good plates. Its advantage is that it has a

straightforward lucid essay on the artist

by Dr Yvonne Scott (Director of the Irish

Art Research Centre, Trinity College,

Dublin), and a CV with a useful bibliog

raphy. Its disadvantage is that while it has

a list of works in the exhibition, not all

of them are reproduced?a starred system

would have helped?and there is no pagi

nation, which makes it difficult to use for

reference. No ISBN number either.

Imagining Ireland: the Collection of

Drawings and Watercolours by John Butler Yeats and Jack B Yeats Model Arts & Niland Gallery/

Royal Hibernian Academy, 2003

pp 60, ills 23 col Square format p/b 12.00

Readability: ****^r

Reference Use: **-*?WV

Design & Durability: ****&

Quality of Plates: * _

This catalogue accompanied a selection o?

works of Yeats, father and son, which was

exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy.

There is a two-page introduction by the

doyenne of Yeats' scholars, Hilary Pyle,

along with very brief notes on each image.

There is no bibliography, or list of illustra

tions, though rather oddly, there is a list of

additional works by Jack B Yeats (not shown in the exhibition) which, together

with the five printed illustrations in the cat

alogue, totals thirty-eight works, whereas

the introduction claims that there are forty

eight works by Jack B Yeats in the Sligo

Municipal collection... .

BRIAN MCAVERA is a playwright and art critic.

144 I

IRISH ARTS REVIEW SUMMER 2004

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.253 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:56:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions