The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of
modern
Modern may refer to:
History
* Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Phil ...
and
contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...
. Located in
Kilmainham
Kilmainham (, meaning " St Maighneann's church") is a south inner suburb of Dublin, Ireland, south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre. It is in the city's Dublin 8 postal district. The area was once known as Kilmanum.
History
In t ...
,
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, the Museum presents a wide variety of art in a changing programme of exhibitions, which regularly includes bodies of work from its own collection and its education and community department. It also aims to create more widespread access to art and artists through its studio and national programmes.
The Museum’s mission is to foster within society an awareness, understanding and involvement in the
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...
through policies and programmes which are excellent, innovative and inclusive.
History
Irish art collector Gordon Lambert met with
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
Charles J Haughey and "told him if the State would establish a gallery he would donate his collection."
The Irish Museum of Modern Art was established by the Government of Ireland in 1990. It was officially opened on 25 May 1991 by Haughey.
Its first Director was
Declan McGonagle
Declan McGonagle is a well-known figure in Irish contemporary art, holding positions as director at the Orchard Gallery in Derry, the first director at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and as director of the National College of Art and Design, Dub ...
, who served for 10 years. He was followed by Enrique Juncosa, and then Sarah Glennie.
Annie Fletcher has been Director since 2018.
Building and grounds
The Irish Museum of Modern Art is housed in the 17th-century
Royal Hospital Kilmainham
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham ( ga, Ospidéal Ríochta Chill Mhaighneann) in Kilmainham, Dublin, is a former 17th-century hospital at Kilmainham in Ireland. The structure now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
History
A priory, founded in 11 ...
. The Royal Hospital was founded in 1684 by
James Butler, the
Duke of Ormonde
The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland.
History of Ormonde titles
The earldom ...
and Viceroy to Charles II, as a home for retired soldiers and continued in that use for almost 250 years.
The Royal Hospital is a striking location for displaying modern art. Modelled on
Les Invalides
The Hôtel des Invalides ( en, "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as ...
in Paris, it is arranged around a courtyard and the interior has long corridors running along series of modest interlocking rooms. The original stables have been restored, extended and converted into artists' studios, and the museum runs an artist-in-residence programme.
Originally there was another option to build a new purpose-built museum in Dublin's docklands, but the Hospital proved to be the more pragmatic choice at the time, however "over the years... the lack of a large exhibition space has on occasion been a drawback." Additionally, the Royal Hospital lacked adequate storage and by 2003 up to 20 national and international works were discovered to be badly damaged by "humidity and temperature fluctuations". The
Office of Public Works
The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of o ...
assisted in finding and relocating the bulk of the collection in off-site warehouses, and even a storage container in the museum's car park.
Collection
IMMA holds the Irish National Collection of modern and contemporary art, consisting of over 3500 works by Irish and international artists. The collection's emphasis is on works produced post-1940 and features works by many significant artists including
Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, feminist art, the relationship between the performer and audienc ...
,
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
,
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of Assemblage (art), assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde e ...
,
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
,
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism.
LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
,
Louis le Brocquy
__NOTOC__
Louis le Brocquy ''HRHA'' (; 10 November 1916 – 25 April 2012) was an Irish painter born in Dublin to Albert and Sybil le Brocquy. His work received many accolades in a career that spanned some seventy years of creative practice. ...
,
Matt Mullican
Matt Mullican (born September 18, 1951) is an American artist and educator. He is the child of artists Lee Mullican and Luchita Hurtado. Mullican lives and works in both Berlin and New York City.
Early life and education
Matt Mullican was b ...
,
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...
and
Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...
. The collection is fully catalogued and searchable via a dedicated website.
The
Hennessy
Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy (), is a French producer of cognac, which has its headquarters in Cognac, France.
It is one of the "big four" cognac houses, along with Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin, who together ma ...
Art Fund for IMMA Collection was launched in 2016 in part as a response to funding cuts preventing the museum from having a viable acquisitions budget to collect the work of emerging and mid-career artists since 2011. The fund is a new multi-year corporate partnership and acquisition fund to purchase works by Irish and Irish based artists that are not yet part of the IMMA National Collection of Contemporary and Modern Art. Prior to this the museum relied heavily on private philanthropy. The Hennessy Art Fund has thus far allowed the collection to acquire the work of
Kevin Atherton
Kevin Atherton (born 1950) is a International artist from the Isle of Man who holds Irish citizenship, after twenty years of living and working in Ireland he is now based in Hastings on the south coast of England. His practice includes performance ...
, David Beattie, Rhona Byrne and Dennis McNulty in 2016; and Ciarán Murphy, Maireád McClean, Mark Garry and Yuri Pattison in 2017.
Legal status and funding
The Museum is a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital. The company is funded by
grant-in-aid
A grant-in-aid is money coming from a central government for a specific project. Such funding is usually used when the government and the legislature decide that the recipient should be publicly funded but operate with reasonable independence ...
through the
Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media ( ga, An Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán) is a department of the Government of Ireland. The mission of the department is to promote a ...
and by sponsorship, franchise and own resource income.
References
External links
*
IMMA Collection online catalogue
{{authority control
Arts in Dublin (city)
Contemporary art galleries in Ireland
National museums of the Republic of Ireland
Museums in Dublin (city)
1991 establishments in Ireland
Kilmainham