TD 1
A MODERN EYE Helen Hooker was born into a wealthy
American family from Greenwich, Connecticut and New York City. As a young girl, she attended the Wabanaki School in Greenwich. This open-air, alternative school instilled in her a love of Native American spiritual principles. After attending secondary school in New York City, she refused to apply to university and instead set up her own studio and enrolled with the Art Students League of New York where she was taught by many distinguished American artists. Art and Travel, 1924–1935 To supplement her art studies in New York, Helen made trips to England, France, Spain, and Italy in the mid 1920s. Then, in 1928, aged just 23, she embarked on a long journey with her older sister, Adelaide, through Germany, Sweden, Finland and the Soviet Union. They stayed six months in Russia while Helen studied art with the avantgarde painter Pavel Filonov, in Leningrad. On returning home in late spring 1929, Adelaide wrote a series of articles on their Russian travels for Good Housekeeping, which Helen illustrated. Helen also had her first exhibition, which featured her Russian paintings. Helen spent Christmas 1929 with her sister, Barbara, in France, where she continued painting and photographing. In 1930, she traveled in Italy and on to Greece, where she studied dance with the Kanellos Academy of Greco Choral Dance and produced a prodigious number of watercolours. In their depiction of rural and coastal landscapes, these works anticipate the photographs she In the spring of 1933, Helen met the wandering Irish writer and former military leader, Ernie O’Malley at a Sunday lunch in the Hookers’ Greenwich home. Fascinated not only by his life story but, as a sculptor, by his dramatic face, Helen asked to sculpt his head. Despite her parents’ disapproval, Helen and Ernie saw more of each other in New York and they fell in love. In late 1934 Ernie decided that his future lay in reviving the arts in Ireland and that he should return there in order to secure his military pension. Helen resolved to join him there. To achieve this, Helen and her sister accompanied their mother on a trip to Japan. They visited, among other places, the Japanese branch of Hooker Electrochemical Company. After Japan, the two sisters continued their travels alone, and embarked on an epic journey through Korea, China, Mongolia and Russia to London and eventually on to Dublin. Helen and Ernie married in London in September 1935. They returned immediately to Dublin, where Ernie would later take in Ireland. When the Great Depression hit, Helen returned home and limited her travels to domestic excursions to California and New England. Being conscious of her social responsibilities, she helped out at Hartford House which provided relief to those in need. She applied her artistic talents to designing rooms there, a skill she would later use to design interiors for public libraries in Dublin. Meeting Ernie O’Malley, 1933 took up his medical studies in UCD and Helen set about renting and decorating a house in the Dublin suburb of Rathmines. She explored the use of Irish tweeds and handicraft in their home and on their walls hung a mixture of Russian, Greek, Chinese and Japanese art as well as her own paintings. Married Life, Dublin, 1935–1938 The O’Malleys settled down to domestic life. After a difficult pregnancy, their first child, Cahal, was born in 1936. Even during the pregnancy, Ernie and Helen had started to go on weekend photographic trips. Over the next few years, they would visit over 150 medieval monasteries and archaeological sites around Ireland. In mid-1935 Ernie had taken the American photographer Paul Strand on a five-week tour of Ireland. They had both been impressed by the beauty and artistic integrity of old Ireland. No doubt, Ernie thought similar visits would be a good way not only to explore Ireland with his wife, but also to start on a project to photograph the remaining traces of ancient Irish culture. While Ernie was pursuing his medical studies, publishing his memoir, On Another Man’s Wound, and securing a diploma in European Painting from University College Dublin, Helen set up her own sculpture studio and in 1938 she enrolled in the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. She had quickly established a close circle of friends in Dublin. They included Maude Aiken (musician, wife of Frank Aiken), Fran Fagan (boutique store on Anne Street), 32