Customer Reviews

When Time Began to Rant and Rage: Figurative Painting from Twentieth-Century Ireland

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This very sophisticated book is far more than the accompanying catalogue for a travelling exhibition by Irish artists that took place in 1998 -1999. Ireland is a country steeped in artistic tradition though most of us know that tradition in the guise of literature, poetry, and drama instead of painting. James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, O'Casey, Seamus Heaney, and the McCourts to just tickle the surface. The wise editor Steward opens this volume with a thoroughly entertaining and informing essay 'The Irishness of Irish Painting' and then has the good graces to turn over the remainder of the written half of this book to fine essayists who write about 'Politics', 'Jack Yeats and the Making of Irish Art in the Twentieth Century', 'Irish Women Painters and the Introduction of Modernism', and 'Madonna and Maiden, Mistress and Mother: Woman as Symbol of Ireland and Spirit of the Nation'. All of these ( and there are more!) add a variety of style and perspective to the impressive pictorial catalogue which follows in the second half of this book. Thus prepared solidly we are free to bask in the beauty of the works by Sir William Orpen, Willaim Leech, Sir John Lavery, Paul Henry, Roderic O'Conor, Jack B. Yeats, Sean Keating, Dermot Seymour, Patrick Graham, Christopher Campbell - the list is very large. So many of these fine painters are instantly recognizable to the inveterate museum goer, but many do not enjoy the world fame of their contemporaries. After spending time with this book I think you will wonder why....... A very fine collecton and well conceived and produced book.

This is an amazing book from an amazing art exhibit. Since all the artwork has returned to it's original collections, all that remains is this book. It illustrates the intense passion and political ideology of Ireland over the past 100 years. Many artist rarely mentioned are included in this vast work, artists whose work powerful, humourous, beautiful - art that enriches the human experience. If you have any interest in Irish art, be you an Irish-American or an international art enthusiast, purchase this book to open a new world of art for you and to enjoy for many years to come.

This text heavy volume looks at art in Ireland in the twentieth century especially in its political and social context. With essays from a number of contributors, the book opens with a chronology setting out the significant developments in Ireland's history since 1800. The book concludes with a brief biography for each artist and a bibliography.

Just over half the book is devoted to the Catalogue, with many of the artists represented by several paintings. Each work is reproduced in full colour to a size as large as the page will permit allowing for format, on the facing page is an illuminating discussion of each painting. Over seventy works are featured and in addition to the seventy plus colour plates there are several black and white illustrations the Catalogue. The preceding essays are also well illustrated with numerous, albeit often small, black and white reproductions or artists' work.

This is a fascinating and informative publication, and illustrates well the progress and diversity of painting during the twentieth century in Ireland.