Irish Arts Review

Desirée Shortt 1975-1985Author(s): Rosemary RyanSource: Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 2, No. 2, Celebrating the 20th Irish AntiqueDealers' Fair, 5th-10th August 1985, Dublin (Summer, 1985), p. 61Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20491767 .

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW

EXHIBITIONS VISITED

Le Classicisme Franpais The cherry blossoms were in bloom, the banner was aloft and once again the National Gallery of Ireland played host to an important exhibition of paintings,

This one was from the French 17th century school; thirty-five paintings were sent from France, twenty-one from the Louvre and the rest from French provincial museums. The Gallery includ ed eight of its own fine collection from the period.

It is some time since the Gallery has had an exhibition of Old Master paint ings from abroad and this made a

welcome change; even the decor had an eclat of its own and the distant strains of contemporary music, which accompanied an informative video, all made this a worthwhile visit. As we have come to expect, a scholarly and well illustrated catalogue accompanied the exhibition. In addition, a series of lectures by eminent scholars provided a better un derstanding of the strict canons of taste governing this period of French art.

The exhibition was limited to history painting, including historical landscapes, executed between 1625 and 1675. As was to be expected, great names such as Poussin and Claude were to be found, as well as that of Le Brun who, as Chancel lor of the reorganised Academie from 1663 until 1683, was directly responsible to Colbert and the King for all artistic production. The exuberance of Vouet's prolific output was well represented by-a fine work Abundance from the Louvre, a contrast to the more sober and personal style of his pupil Le Sueur, also represent ed. The Louvre favours limited cleaning of its pictures and, unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate the beauties of the works on loan from that museum, particularly the large landscape by Claude Le Gue and the Bacchanal by Poussin.

Poussin was undeniably the greatest artist of le grand siecle and whilst this was

an opportunity to see a work of the calibre of The Death of Sapphira, it is to

be regretted that, having received our most important Treasures of Early Irish Art, France was unable to loan one of Poussin's really major works from the Louvre's splendid collection of that artist.

Honor Quinlan

Gilbert Swimberghe Gilbert Swimberghe, a Belgian painter who showed for the first time in Ireland April 12th to May 4th at the Oliver Dowling Gallery, Kildare Street, Dublin has come honourably to minimalism from figurative beginnings. Swimberghe

works in carefully considered shades of grey. He divides his surfaces, square by preference, into geometrical forms, often using opposing diagonals. In his acrylics he carefully balances his shades of grey with leanings towards the bluish end of the spectrum and then feathers palely over them softening even further the underlying tone. This ensures a carefully structured balance between tension and subtlety; the shapes create a tension but the surface treatment gently and sweetly

unifies the whole. The most rigorous and therefore the

most rewarding pieces were his two 'pencil on acrylic' on canvas. The paint is laid on smoothly, the canvas divided, but overall were pencil lines laid on diagonally covering the entire canvas. This served the same unifying purpose as the feathering overlay, but the way in

which pencil on canvas shows variations in intensity that is both beyond the artist's control and within the limitations of a carefully ruled line results in a carefully structured and compelling inter action. The most effective of the two pencil drawings utilizes opposing dia gonals, the geometrical base running from right to left, the pencil lines countering them.

Swimberghe is a carefully disciplined painter; thankfully his minimalism is original. Any influences are cerebral rather than visual. As a minimalist Swimberghe retains a reassuring touch of sensuality.

Harriet Cooke

Desiree Shortt 1975 1985

When I visited Miss Shortt's Retrospec tive Exhibition of Porcelain Restoration at 38, North Great Georges Street,

Dublin 1 in May, she told me that this celebration of her work over the decade since she founded her studio was the first exhibition ever held by a china restorer. The restored items displayed exemplify not only the high standard of Desiree Shortt's work but also the variety of work

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undertaken, ranging from a porcelain doorcase in the National Museum to antique English and Chinese porcelain, Italian majolica, a modern pottery bowl, a rococo carved and gilded jesso and

wood antique frame, an ivory figure, a plaster bust, and an example of the Belleek parian bust of Clytie which appears on the back cover of Irish Arts Review.

Rosemary Ryan

Erik Adriaan van der Grijn Erik van der Grijn is a Dutch artist long settled in Ireland, although he frequently returns to Holland. He showed new

work at the Hendriks Gallery in May. At first sight this work was a considerable departure from his previous Hard Edge Realism painting based on road signs and traffic warnings. The new painting was very much freer and, it seemed, more dynamic. Brilliant reds, greens, blues, and yellows burst through extraordinari ly rich blacks in an exuberant break of abstract enthusiasm. The large 5-piece painting Wall-eve is the most stunning Brahmsian orchestration of finely brushed black surface with openings to braying reds and vivid greens since Clyfford Still was at the height of Abstract Expressionism. The Dutch seem to have an innate feeling for paint, as the Irish are said to have for words; I think it comes from their flat countryside where every scene flattens itself into two dimen sions against the even planes of the land.

Certainly van der Grijn uses black oil paint with enviable skill and panache, and he always did. It is interesting to think back on his Hard Edge Realism painting of ten years ago and to realize how similar they were in their basic concerns to the current series. The beautiful black surface was also on the outer plane with formal openings through to brilliant yellow and blue planes beyond; the the essential energy and dynamism were expressed both by the often diagonal composition and by the sense of speed of a bright yellow and black warning motif painted along a fast corner. That essential dynamism is now beating through the new abstract paint ing in a spiritual, metaphysical surge that

would surely have delighted Mainie Jellett and Kandinsky.

Dorothy Walker

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