Sometimes it may seem like auction houses dominate the sale of art, but it’s worth remembering that most Irish art is first for sale in galleries. And next weekend, from November 8th-10th, 11 galleries will come together to show work by the artists they represent at the Dublin Gallery Weekend.
The weekend, an initiative of the recently formed Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA), which aims to raise the profile of contemporary artists, will feature exhibitions, artist talks and guided tours at galleries such as Kevin Kavanagh Dublin, Solomon Fine Art, Oliver Sears, Molesworth, Taylor, Kerlin, Green on Red, and more.
An outdoor group show, Kites above the Castle, curated by director of the Royal Hibernian Arts gallery Patrick Murphy, will be held in Wilton Park, Dublin 2.
In addition, sculptors John Behan and Jason Ellis will give talks about their work as part of the programme, as will Justin Fitzpatrick, Patricia Burns, Yanny Petters and others.
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The Dublin Gallery Weekend – 11am-8pm on Friday, and 11am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday – will also host a conference on Saturday at 11am in the IPUT Real Estate building at 15 George’s Quay (for which you can email cagadublin@gmail.com for tickets). Entitled Realising the Potential of the Irish Visual Art Sector, and chaired by the former director of the National Gallery of Ireland Sean Rainbird, it is set to feature an impressive list of critics, writers, curators, collectors and yes, artists too, among the panellists.
“Some Irish artists are selling well in Ireland and some are selling well internationally, but we need to strengthen Irish galleries to support artists to broaden their perspectives so that Irish art has more exposure in private and corporate collections and museums internationally,” says Rainbird.
Modern British and Irish art
Timely advice indeed, as Dublin art collectors set to be given a preview of the paintings from the biannual Modern British and Irish Art auctions at Sotheby’s London today and tomorrow (November 2nd and 3rd) at the RHA gallery in the capital.
The auction of 44 lots will include works by William Orpen (including the portrait of his lover, the American millionaire Evelyn St George, €720,000-€960,000), John Lavery (The Bathing Hour, Lido, Venice; €750,000-€950,000) and Nano Reid (one of her best-known paintings, Friday Fare; €24,000-€36,000).
Works by contemporary artists such as Hughie O’Donoghue, Maser, Melissa O’Donnell and Blaise Smith will also be for sale.
The presale exhibition in London will later be held from November 9th-14th in Sotheby’s new Bond Street gallery, and the auction will be held on November 14th and 15th.
Old masters
In an interesting turn of events, Adams Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers – based in Dublin city centre since 1887 – is launching its first Irish Old Masters auction on Tuesday, November 5th.
The auction of 84 lots offers collectors a “rare opportunity to acquire works of comparable quality and provenance to those held by the National Gallery of Ireland and other prestigious collections worldwide”, according to Stuart Cole of Adam’s.
Sales of Irish art were first introduced in Adam’s in 1973, which some will remember as the year of the oil crisis (when there were fuel shortages and spikes in oil prices in response to the Arab-Israeli war). The timing proved auspicious as some investors were moving away from traditional investments, and museums and collectors, particularly in the United States, were showing an interest in Irish art.
The history of Adam’s, written by its chairman, Brian Coyle, also notes that 18th- and 19th-century artists such as William Ashford and the Roberts (a reference to Thomas Sautelle Roberts and his brother, Thomas Roberts) were among the sought-after artists. “Perhaps, as the work of these artists was more international and immediately appealed to the then current taste for neoclassical and Romantic works, they succeeded and sold,” writes Coyle.
Cole highlights works by Thomas Roberts, Nathaniel Hone (the elder) and George Barret among those to look out for in next week’s auction. “Our Irish art auctions now feature a far greater quantity of modern art than it did in those early days,” he says. “So we feel now is the right time to introduce a separate Irish art auction dedicated to those artists who were the backbone of the early Irish art auctions.”
It’s fair to say the tastes of collectors of contemporary Irish art may differ from those drawn to paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the paintings from the 1700s and 1800s are romanticised landscapes, hunting or maritime scenes and family portraits commissioned by the artists’ patrons. In the Adam’s auction, Wicklow, Waterford and Cork feature strongly in the paintings of Irish rural landscapes. Take, for example, the aquatint and etching of the river Dargle in Co Wicklow (€200-€300), made in the style of the artist Thomas Sautelle Roberts.
There are also some magnificent prints of late 18th-century Georgian streetscapes such as Robert Havell’s coloured aquatint of College Green, Dublin (€1,500-€2,000). The engraver and watercolourist James Malton (1761-1803) was one of the most famous names from this period. He is best known for a series of prints, published in the 1790s as A Picturesque and Descriptive View of the City of Dublin, one of which will be for sale (€8,000-€10,000) in the auction.
What did it sell for?
Wall Dark Green by Sean Scully
Estimate €500,000-€700,000
Hammer price Not sold
Auction house Morgan O’Driscoll
1960s photograph of French intellectuals with Che Guevara, Alberto Korda
Estimate €1,000-€1,500
Hammer price €1,400
Auction house Morgan O’Driscoll
Fishing Off Clogherhead by Nano Reid
Estimate €1,500-€2,500
Hammer price €9,500
Auction house Morgan O’Driscoll
The Table in the Blue Room by Gerard Dillon
Estimate €100,000-€150,000
Hammer price €100,000
Auction house Morgan O’Driscoll
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