Journal of Art Historiography (Dec 2013)
‘The Irish Imagination 1971 – Stereotype or Strategy’
Abstract
The paper analyses one of the most influential and contentious essays on post-war Irish art, Brian O’Doherty’s text for the 1971 exhibition catalogue, the Irish Imagination 1959-71. The exhibition, a subsidiary of the international Rosc 71 exhibition, was an important vehicle for promoting contemporary Irish visual art in a global forum. The paper considers how O’Doherty’s representation of modern Irish art relates to the priorities of the art establishment in the Republic of Ireland in the early 1970s. Coming at a crucial moment in the escalation of violence in Northern Ireland and the demise of Modernism internationally, it argues that the essay encapsulates many of the contradictions of its time. The ‘atmospheric mode’ is identified as the key feature of mid 20th century Irish painting. O’Doherty suggests that this ambiguous use of form is the result of a problematical relationship between the artist and his/her native country. Avoiding conventional biographical or art historical narratives in favour of a systematic critical method O’Doherty’s text focuses on the physical characteristics of the artworks. Drawing on both formalist and nationalist rhetoric in its evaluation of Irish art, it makes a cogent, if problematic, defence of local art practice in the face of the dominant cosmopolitan centre.
