Transmitting Avant-garde Art: Post-impressionism in a Dublin Context

Abstract

This essay explores how the London art press affected debates on avant-garde art in Ireland prior to World War I. The emergence of new specialist art periodicals, such as The Studio, The Connoisseur, and The Burlington Magazine, provided access to metropolitan ideas on art for those seeking an alternative to the dominant discourses in their own regions or nascent nations. While the significance and impact of Roger Fry's (1866–1934) groundbreaking post-impressionist exhibitions of 1910–1912 have been extensively explored, it is often forgotten that versions of these exhibitions were also shown in Dublin at a pivotal moment in Ireland's history. Taking as its case study the staging of Exhibition of Works by Post-Impressionist Painters (1911) and Modern French Pictures (1912) at the United Arts Club Dublin, this essay examines the critical contexts around them. It focuses on Ellen Duncan (1850–1937), the curator and instigator of both exhibitions, who began her foray into visual art through her contributions to the art press. Duncan defended the exhibitions in the Irish press, advocating the individuality and freedom of avant-garde culture. “Old forms must become outworn,” she asserted. This essay also explores how the overturning of traditional ideas found in post-impressionist art was for some a radical model for the invention of a New Ireland.