CIRCA 111 Update

Coming soon to a CIRCA near you…

Many changes are afoot at CIRCA. To summarise them briefly:

• We have been privileged to have in Stephanie McBride, Mick Cunningham, Aidan Dunne and Brian Kennedy such excellent chroniclers of visual art and culture in Ireland and further afield. Their columns have allowed a continuity of expert commentary going back over may years. Alas, this is the last issue in which their columns will appear; our heartfelt thanks for their contributions.

• In the same jettisoning spirit, we are letting themes go for the foreseeable future. Yes, we’re just going to wing it. This does mean that we are open once more for the submission of ideas and texts for feature articles.

• We also bid the post of Editorial Adviser farewell, with thanks to all those who served us so well in that rotating post. An Editorial Advisory Committee takes its place.

Watch out for further changes at the magazine.

In other news, we are very pleased to welcome Graham Gosling to the Board of CIRCA. However, we are sorry to lose Oliver Whelan, who has come to the end of his term on the Board, after many years of hard work on CIRCA’s behalf, including as Chair of the Board.

David Godbold to be official General Election Artist

The Dublin artist David Godbold has been chosen by Westminster’s all-party Advisory Committee on Works of Art to cover the next UK general election, expected to take place in May. A brave choice, it would certainly seem as Godbold is no stranger to satire. Godbold’s recent show at Dublin’s Kerlin Gallery is reviewed on page 96 of this issue. Titled Once it was a Lie, Now it’s the Truth, there is also another, online review at recirca.com/reviews/2005/davidgodbold/dg.shtml.

Basil Blackshaw: White flower for '05, 2004, mixed media; one of the works for auction at the RHA tsunami event; courtesy Fergus Ahern

Auctions raise a minor fortune

‘Tsunami’ art auctions have been held at various locations around Ireland, and more are in the pipeline. Three such have now taken place. The one in Birr raised over €5,000, the one at hopewire in Bunclody over €8,000, and the one at the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, a most impressive €27,000, with the highest price, €2,550, being paid for a painting by Blaise Smith.

However, the daddy of them all was at the RHA in Dublin on 15 February. With works by over three hundred artists, it raised over €270,000(!) for Sri Lanka.

Venice coming to Cork in 2006, as Republic’s artists named

Walker and Walker: Twilight, 2003, reflection of neon on glass window, installation shot, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios; courtesy the artists

The names of the Republic’s artists at the fifty-first Venice Biennale have been announced. They are Stephen Brandes, Mark Garry, Ronan McCrea, Sarah Pierce, Isabel Nolan and Walker and Walker. Sarah Glennie is the Commissioner.

For the first time, following its return from Venice, the Republic’s exhibition will be presented in Ireland. This will take place in early 2006 in the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, which will also, as collaborating partner, support the staging of the exhibition in Venice.

The Sculptors’ Society of Ireland will produce a special edition of their journal Printed Project as part of the Republic’s participation in Venice; it will be edited by Alan Phelan.

Meanwhile, Garry’s recent show at The Workroom in Dublin is reviewed on page 77 of this issue.

Derry welcomes new art space

The art community of Derry gathered on Saturday 22 January to preview its newest art space, Void. The art centre, the basement of the old City Factory in Patrick Street, has been renovated from a shirt factory built in 1861. It houses two gallery spaces and several artists’ studios.

The celebrations began with artists’ talks, then the opening of Peripheral Vision featuring Peter Butcher, Ghazel, Frances Hegarty and Vong Phaophanit. Mayor of Derry Councillor Gearóid Ó hEára and Iain Davidson of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland welcomed the new art centre, saying it would help foster the local art scene and that of Northern Ireland. The space will be officially opened in March this year.

O’Sullivan replaces Weadick at Butler

Anna O’Sullivan, long-time CIRCA Contributing Editor for New York, has been selected to replace Nathalie Weadick as Director of the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. O’Sullivan, a graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, has been well known as a touchstone for artists from Ireland in the Big Apple. She has worked in the commercial-gallery sector there, in particular with the Robert Miller Gallery. Weadick, meanwhile, has joined the Architecture Foundation in London as Deputy Director; her work at the Butler Gallery has been widely praised for bringing that gallery to national and international attention.

Gordon Lambert, 1920 – 2005

One cold morning at the end of the year, I was visiting the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin. While I was there, a man came in; he was obviously well known to the gallery staff. I also recognised the visitor, Gordon Lambert, an art collector who had spent over forty years visiting galleries nationwide, getting to know the world of curators and artists. That morning, the love (yes, that is the right word) he had for this world could not have been clearer. He spoke about Basil Blackshaw’s large retrospective show in Belfast. He had gone up on the train to see it the day before. “I had to go and see the show,” he said, “I’m a big fan of Blackshaw’s.”

And that is how the story goes with Gordon Lambert’s faithful and generous support for the visual arts in this country from the mid-1950s. Although he was a powerful man in the business world, as the head of the major biscuit factory Jacobs, and although he had plenty of resources to purchase the ‘friendship’ of any artist, it was never his way to abuse his fortunate position. He was a true fan of the visual arts. He certainly bought art to support artists and their galleries, though primarily he bought a piece of work because his eye cared for it and because it brought pleasure to his heart.

After all his support it is well overdue that the art world came together last week to present Lambert with a very special thank you - dedicating the exhibition spaces in the West Wing of IMMA to the great man and naming them in his honour.

This recognises the fact that his personal collection has become an integral part of the institution. The decision was taken in 1990 to open the Museum as a result of Gordon Lambert’s promise to donate his personal collection to it. And what a collection, three hundred pieces in total, important works from North and South America, from Britain, Europe and of course from Ireland. From that time he started a foundation that regularly purchases art and makes it available to the State.

Gordon Lambert always acted with this generous humanistic approach. A man with vision, a man who considered his power and ability as a fortunate businessman as a means to benefit the cultural life of his country. A sensitive understanding of the work underpinned the purchases for his collection. Unlike many corporate buyers, he was not reliant on advisers when he was taking the chequebook out of his pocket. Oftentimes, he would buy a challenging piece, work that would not necessarily have been the most beguiling available at the time. Because artists knew that at least one private collector out there understood what they were trying to achieve, they were inspired to take risks with big imaginative leaps, rather than working with half an eye on the market, and attempting to please the conservative buyer.

In an interview he gave nine years ago, at the time he donated his collection to the state, Gordon Lambert was asked what advice he would give to people who were thinking about buying art. He gave a clear and simple response. “Don’t bother with second-rate art,” he said, “If you are not in a position to buy the very best work, then buy a print of a great work.”

It was timely and fitting that Gordon Lambert was sitting opposite Barrie Cooke’s masterpiece Megaceros Hibernicus (the Great Irish Elk) this past week while the minister spoke. Just like the elk, there will not be another like him.

Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, translated by Rachel Ní Chuinn; this article originally appeared in Foinse in 1999; as gaeilge it is to be found at recirca.com/asgaeilge/altanna/lambert.shtml.

Article reproduced from CIRCA 111, Spring 2005, pp.26–30

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