Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840

Nathaniel Hone, The Spartan Boy, A Portrait of Camillius Hone, 
The Artist's Son, c. 1775. Private collection. Photo Courtesy of Pyms Gallery.

If you have not yet seen the Ireland:Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840 exhibition currently at the Art Institute of Chicago, it’s not too late.  The exhibition has been extended through June 21, 2015 and is a feast for the eyes and soul.

The expansive exhibition is a celebration of 18^th century Ireland’s decorative and fine arts, bringing together more than 300 objects that include impressive elements such as paintings, furniture, silver, textiles, books, musical instruments, ceramics, glass, arms & militaria. 

John Egan. Portable Harp, c. 1820. The O'Brien Collection.
Photo: Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics.

It is only fitting that the exhibition should take place in Chicago, a city rich in Irish heritage and is shared by the Art Institute's dedication to Irish visual culture. The Art Institute of Chicago's Irish collections serves as the nucleus for the exhibition, along with significant objects with an Irish provenance on loan from the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, Loyola University Museum of Art, the Newberry Library and the American College of Surgeons.  

While visitors to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago were introduced to "the quaint charms of rural Ireland," it was from 2007 until 2011 that Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin freely shared his ideas that supported the Art Institute of Chicago to realize a much more comprehensive vision. The Art Institute is the first and only venue to present this exhibition.

The viewer has the opportunity to wander throughout the ten galleries with works of art representing 24 Irish countries, thematically organized for optimum experiences of "moments" and "snapshots" of Irish tradition. 

John Kirkhoffer, Secretary Cabinet, 1732. Dublin, Ireland.
Art Institute Chicago, Gift of Robert Allerton

After absorbing the exhibition's many cultural delights, patrons are invited to pay a visit to a temporary Irish pub located in the museum's Café Moderno.

Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design 1690-1840 offers the next best experience to visiting the country.

Samuel Walker. Two-Handled Cup and Cover, c.1761-66.
Dublin, Ireland. Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Gift of an anonymous donor, 2008.

Exhibition Special Events:

Author Talk: Emma Donoghue
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Fullerton Hall
6:00pm
Irish-born prize winning author and historian Emma Donoghue will join museum visitors for a talk about Raising the Dead. Donoghue will reflect on her Irish background and the techniques of her fact-inspired fiction that draws on real Irish lives, at home and abroad, from the 14th to 19th century.

Free with museum admission; free admission for Illinois residents Thursdays from 5:00-8:00pm.

Ceili at the Crossroads
Saturday, June 6, 2015
2:00pm-3:00pm
A concert of traditional Irish music performed by an extraordinary ensemble of world-class musicians. The performance features music from the CD recorded to accompany the exhibition.

Shatter Rupture Break

Imagine the world a century ago – swept up in two global wars, with society shifting and ever challenging. It almost seems like the world today: wars, communication as fast as a keystroke and the ever-present challenge of society.

Shatter Rupture Break, now on view at the Art Institute Chicago through May 3, 2015, suggests the common thread between society and life, steeped in the uncertain emotional moments of the era. The artists of the early 20th century responded to the shift, freeing themselves from traditional forms of art and were influenced by a myriad of emotions that explored the revolutionary process of deconstruction and reconstruction through modern forms. This was indeed an age of radical developments in the creation of art.

Robert Delaunay, Champs de Mars: The Red Tower, 1911/23.
Joseph Winterbotham Collection.

Above: Robert Delaunay's approach to an innovative, fractured perspective of the Eiffel Tower

Ilse Bing. Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1931. Julien Levy Collection, 
Gift of Jean and Julien Levy. © Estate of Ilse Bing.

Above: Ilse Bing's enigmatic and complex Eiffel Tower view.

Associate Curator of Photography, Elizabeth Siegel and the Gilda and Henry Buchbinder Associate Curator of American Art, Sarah Kelly Oehler, took the lead in organizing the first in the Modern Series of exhibitions that unveils the voices of artists, writers, scientists and other intellectuals of the period.

The exhibition features artworks that represent seven curatorial departments, including the library.

The Art Institute was an early champion of modern artists, including its presentation of the Armory Show in 1913. Shatter Rupture Break highlights a selection of recent acquisitions of modern art, and also includes some long-held works that have formed the core of the modern collection for decades.

Fernand Léger. Composition in Blue, 1921-27. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection. 
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

The real world had been shattered and broken from the ravages of two world wars, and the stage was set for artists to piece together new art forms.  As Kurt Schwitters (below) declared, "Everything had broken down in any case and new things had to be made out of the fragments."

Kurt Schwitters. Mz 13 Call, 1919. The Art Institute of Chicago. 
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice E. Culberg.
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

The fragmented body also became a perceptive approach as a response to the fractured world. Many artists, including Surrealists, chose to explore creativity from the unlocked mind. In Paris, the surrealists created illusionary body parts to effectuate forms.

Salvador Dalí. City of Drawers, 1936. The Art Institute of Chicago. 
Gift of Frank B. Hubachek. © Salvador Dalí,
Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2014.

Included in the exhibition are selected photographs that range from Alfred Stieglitz's stirring images of Georgia O'Keeffe to the "shattered" self-portrait created by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (below).

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Self-Portrait, Zakopane [Broken Glass], 1910.
 Promised Gift of a Private Collection

During this time artists experimented with film that introduced innovative and avant-garde techniques that incorporated unusual perspectives, fast cuts and jarring effects. Fernand Léger's Ballet mécanique 35mm black and white film (1924) is an example of this dynamic, yet incongruous technique. Léger's film is on view along with several other films that run the gamut between humor and surrealism.

Shatter Rupture Break connects the radical, avant-garde and fragmented emotions of the period and is guaranteed to stir the viewer.



Museum Hours
Daily: 10:30-5:00
Thursdays until 8:00

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