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WORDS Tom Lordan fronted by Seán Keating’s landma
rk Men of the South (1921) or the Finnish Expressionist Tyko Sallinen’s theatrical Study for the Fight III (1920), for instance, one can’t help but feel moved by the raw intensity that suffuses their scenes: the painterly subjects bear the traces of a society marked by armed struggle and resistance. The solemnity of these works is quite at odds with subversive artworks like Alan Phelan’s Roger Should Have Stayed in the Jungle (2006) or Niamh McCann’s Stream of Consciousness (2022). In the latter, the artist studied the nose of a 1949 marble statue of Michael Collins, and then rendered it in bronze. The isolated organ sits atop two large curved beams, which may either be supporting or skewering the nose, depending on your interpretation. Another element of the show that comes across strongly is the prevalence of the modernist ‘Futurist’ style. One of the few Polish artists included in the exhibition is Jerzy Hulewicz, whose magisterial Charge (1932-1939) is housed in the Garden Galleries. This large-scale painting is a fantastic example of the style sweeping through the artist populations of Eastern Europe and Russia - Hulewicz depicts the Polish Legions, a famous cavalry troupe, being led into battle. The geometrical configuration of the spatial relationships between the figures, and the abstract characterisation of bodies hurtling at speed through the terrain, evident here, are familiar tropes from the Futurist playbook. Charge is an immersive work of art, and compels the attention of everyone who steps into the room. By contrast, the Irish painting conventions of the period are more naturalistic, though there were some far-sighted individuals, like Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, who made the case for modernist abstraction despite almost “universal derision.” This last point leads to a critical component of the show. In many instances, IMMA’s curatorial team interrogates the underlying presuppositions of the nation-building efforts of the post-WWI period. At various points in the exhibition, historical hypocrisies and paradoxes are put under a spotlight. According to O’Donnell, the critique embedded in the fabric of the show seeks to highlight the injustices of the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations, which reinscribed colonial and racist power structures. Arguably, ‘self-determination’ was a mechanism of containment, aiming to neutralise the seismic waves of revolutionary energies and international solidarities emerging globally at this time. A gargantuan and multifaceted exhibition that deserves attention. Self-Determination: A Global Perspective runs at IMMA until Sunday April 21. 49