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easons to be cheerful? This wondrous building is
open 361 days a year, has free admission and is celebrating 160 years of gifting millions of people, from Dublin and beyond, access to a spectacular treasure trove of over 16,300 artworks. Our National Gallery spans the history of western European art, from around 1300 to the present day, with a collection that includes well-known artists from Mantegna and Titian to Monet and Picasso. Paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photography, archival and bibliographical material all feature, in addition to objets d’art, silverware and furniture. It is also a huge educational resource, the home of Source: The Irish Art Digital Archive & Library, a varied event and workshop space and just one of those magical places in our city to stroll around and decompress, surrounded by stunning artistry and beautiful objects. To mark the occasion we spoke to some artists and gallery curators about their favourite works of art housed here, compiled a short, potted history of the gallery and spoke to Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. Born and raised in Belfast, Dr Campbell has spent her career in three leading international art museums as a curator and senior leader. She has held positions at the Ashmolean Museum, the Courtauld Gallery and has worked as Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London. Dr Campbell kicked off her tenure in November 2022, and is the first female Director in the Gallery’s 160 year history. I am impressed by how open the gallery is to hosting contemporary artists, and of course, other mediums. Last year, Dublin jazz act Lavery performed in the space, and you housed an exhibition with Ishmael Claxton. Well the gallery’s collections go up to the present day, across seven centuries, from the 13th to the 21st. It’s key that we are a place where anyone can find something to enjoy. Working with living artists, working with practitioners of other art forms, musicians and writers, is something that we love to do. A work of art is always contemporary as long as it’s being looked at. As long as it’s being thought about as long as it’s thought about in a way that’s of our time and of our moment. We have Responsibility for the National Portrait Collection, to be developing that involves working with living artists. The sheer range and variety of what the Gallery exhibits is also a marvel. And is constantly growing. Are there any recent additions or exhibitions that you’ve enjoyed? So far this year we’ve put on display two really important new commissions, one is a portrait of Marian Keyes by Margaret Corcoran, and the other, a portrait of Mike Ryan,who played such a huge role in the way the world dealt with COVID, by Aiden Crotty. Last year we had an exhibition we did in collaboration with the Royal Hibernian Academy, which showed the work of all the women who have been members of the RHA, in the hundred years since women were allowed to be members in 1923. The range and the fact that you can visit one place in here and cross time, and cross geographies because the collection here has always been a very international collection, and an internationally renowned collection. A great collection of Spanish, French, Italian, Flemish, as well as Irish art and other art from these islands. You have a window into Ireland in this collection but you also have Ireland’s window out to the world. And who manages the oversight of such a deep and varied collection? We have a team of very specialist and expert curators, whose role it is to curate the displays in the gallery, but also the exhibition program that we have. We have a combination of exhibitions which are often organised in collaboration with institutions abroad. And for those exhibitions there would be an admission charge, but there are always times when you can visit those exhibitions for free as well. What are some highlights we can look forward to over the coming year? This year is our 170th anniversary, it’s also an important anniversary for impressionism. The Impressionist movement is 150 years old . We will have an exhibition opening in late June, which looks at the four women who were most closely associated with the impressionist painters in the late 19th century. Eva Gonzalès, Berthe Morisot, Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt, who were the four most significant women who exhibited, or were friends with the Impressionist group. We’re working on that project with a great partner institution in Denmark, Ordrupgaard, Denmark, as well as from public and private collections in Europe and the United States. It’s wonderful to be able to bring such important work to Ireland. We always have projects about Irish art, and this Autumn we will have a show devoted to Mildred Anne Butler, who was one of the most successful Irish artists of the late 19th century. One of the first professional women artists in Ireland, born in the 1850’s and she died in 1941. We will additionally be holding an exhibition curated by our Curator of Prints and Drawings, Anne Hodge. “In Real Life” which looks at the fragility and beauty of nature through the perspective of our collection, and also four works on loan from four living Irish artists, Bridget Flannery, David Lunney, Fiona McDonald and Angie Shanahan. If you think of the initials, IRL, it’s looking at nature through Ireland, and the beauty of the ordinary and how art can focus our attention on nature at risk. 13