The AIB Art Collection in Albert College consists of works by thirteen of Ireland’s premier artists, on loan from AIB. Twelve works in the University’s main boardroom and lobby draw inspiration from Albert College’s history as shaper of the ever-changing Irish countryside. Albert College began life in 1838 as a model farm and became the Albert National Agricultural Training Institution in 1853 after a visit from Prince Albert. It is now the centre-piece of DCU’s Glasnevin Campus, home to the President’s office, the boardroom and the 1838 Club, a restaurant and social space. Artist Helen Barry will offer a bespoke tour of the collection, and using Visual Arts Strategies will focus on 1-2 artworks for deeper interpretation.
Landscape paintings dominate this collection. Arthur Armstrong’s rugged, textured coastline, Mary Farl Powers’ disconcerting waterfall, T.P. Flanagan’s lake-land memory-bank, Martin Gale’s brooding farmland, Nathaniel Hone the younger’s idyllic haymaking, and Tony O’Malley’s fields hovering on the brink of abstraction: all testify to the multifaceted Irish countryside. Still life paintings by George Campbell, Margaret Clarke and Anne Yeats suggest the human hand imposing form on nature. Also in the collection is an abstract canvas by Charles Tyrrell, but even that work references a green, elemental terrain. Anna Linnane’s ‘Hybrid’ contemplates a rich, strange moment of sea-change. Gazing at the artists’ interpretation of nature’s
diversity is the inscrutable eye of Oisín Kelly’s solitary bronze figure. In Albert College’s formal dining room hangs an additional painting: Mark O’Kelly’s ‘Parade’, a canvas of women striding purposefully towards the portraits of DCU’s former presidents and chancellor. The painting is a celebratory parable of strength and balance.
The collection was curated by Maureen Porteous..
Date & Time: Friday, 23rd September - 10.30am (45 mins)
Location: The Blue Door, Albert College, DCU Glasnevin campus
Free of Charge
