“Looking at the Stars”: Irish Art at the University of Notre Dame

With the recent gift of modern paintings by artists such as Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957), Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940), and Mary Swanzy (1882-1978), among others, from the Donald and Marilyn Keough Family, the University of Notre Dame has laid a solid foundation on which to build a rich collection of Irish art that will inspire audiences the world over. This is the premier examination of many works from the Keough gift as well as several other significant collections of Irish Art.   Taken together, the collections combine to create a landmark exhibition at the Snite Museum of Art.

The exhibition will also include a selection of donated photographs by Alen MacWeeney.  Born in Dublin in 1939, the photographer established a worldwide reputation when he chronicled the native itinerants of Ireland known as Travellers, and their music. The artist’s genre studies in the chapels and pubs of Dublin, and his country landscapes, possess a mood of poetic evocation. Also included in the exhibition are MacWeeney’s photographs of O’Neill house in Southwestern County Kerry. Approximately fifty photographs, ranging in date from 1965 to 2015, will be shown. A supporting website has been created to access audio recordings by MacWeeney during his travels. http://publications.snitemuseum.org/irish/

Additionally, important collections from the museum, including a celebrated group of James Barry (1741–1806) prints, and substantial holdings in Hesburgh Library’s Special Collections, will be featured. These gems and others currently held by the university are cause for celebration and pride with the addition of the Keough and the MacWeeney gifts.

Finally, the museum is honored to announce the loan of several modern and contemporary masterpieces from the renowned collections of Pat and John O’Brien of Chicago.  Such works continue a deeply appreciated relationship with the O’Briens who have made their collections available to the Notre Dame Community and the world.

The history of Irish visual art may be less familiar to visitors than the performing or literary arts, but it is no less compelling. The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame is renowned for promoting new lines of inquiry and research; they are partner with the Snite Museum in this important exhibition endeavor.   

As partners, the museum and institute offer audiences the intractable wit, tenacity, and infinite invention of the Irish spirit through this exhibition. As such, Oscar Wilde’s words in Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892, may apply to Irish artists within the broader art community: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Image: Mary Swanzy (1882–1978), Young Claudius (detail), 1942, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches. Gift of the Donald and Marilyn Keough Foundation, 2019.001.002. © The Artist's Estate.