Dr. Yvonne Scott

Summary

Joint project with Barbara Dawson, Director, Dublin City Gallery/The Hugh Lane. The personal library of an artist is widely recognised as an invaluable resource for exploring and understanding their work. This project is devoted to cataloguing and analysing the library of internationally-acclaimed, Dublin-born artist, Francis Bacon (1909-1982), whose estate includes c.1,000 books. Donated to Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane, Ireland's first museum dedicated to Modern art, the Francis Bacon library represents an invaluable, but so far under-exploited resource for illuminating the imagery of this towering figure of twentieth-century visual expression. Artist's libraries provide an invaluable insight into: (i) the latent interests that stimulate the acquisition of selected books in the first place, (ii) book illustrations that inform or influence the artist's approach to imagery, and (iii) potential sources of intellectual inspiration that may emerge in the work. Bacon read voraciously and his range of interests is evident in the numerous books on subjects as diverse as art, photography, history, politics, philosophy, cinema, sport, supernatural phenomena, and medical textbooks. As well as drawing on visual imagery, Bacon explored literary sources for inspiration. His profound interest in poetry and prose of classic authors included T.S. Eliot, Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Federico Garcia Lorca and W.B. Yeats. The significance of certain themes is indicated by the numbers of books in identifiable fields, and many also have glosses and notes, paint accretions, pages removed and maintained, for reference. These books, and relevant aspects of their condition, have never been fully catalogued, and - most significantly - no comprehensive analysis to examine the relationship between text and image in the work of this artist has yet been undertaken. In the year that Dublin has been recognised and honoured as a Unesco City of Literature, this project will facilitate an examination of the dynamic relationship between verbal and visual texts, in the work of this major Irish artist.

Funding Agency

IRCHSS

Programme

Research Development Initiative

Project Type

Targeted Cofund Initiative

Summary

Artist Barrie Cooke (1931-2014) travelled to New Zealand annually for more than 25 years from the late 1980s to the mid 2000s.A major artist, he was arguably the first in Ireland to address ecological issues. The project maps his visits to sites primarily on the south island of New Zealand, examines them for their local, topographical, scientific and ecological significance, and compares them with equivalent imagery of locations in Ireland.

Funding Agency

Various

Person Months

24

Summary

This project is part of the Consortium on Ageing. Six members of staff running M.Phil. programmes are supervising up to 7 student dissertations on the theme of ageing relevant to their disciplines.

Funding Agency

Trinity College Front Gate Club

Programme

Consortium on Ageing

Project Type

Post-graduate student research

Person Months

16

Summary

This project explores the impact of migration within, into, and from Ireland on Irish art in terms of the movement of ideas, and in providing visual themes. The theme encompasses all periods, and facilitiates interdisciplinary and international comparisons.

Funding Agency

Private Benefaction: White Fellowships

Project Type

Post Graduate Research

Summary

This research was supported by a Government of Ireland IRCHSS post-doctoral Fellowship (2001-03). The research has given rise to a range of researcg papers and journal articles. It formed the basis of a major exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2005, entitled The West as Metaphor, which was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. A book is in progress, nearing completion.

Funding Agency

IRCHSS

Programme

Post-doctoral Fellowship

Project Type

Research for exhibition and book.