Opening Speech, by Hughie O’Donoghue - "11 painters"
Exhibition
Stableyard Gallery, Freshford, Kilkenny Arts Week, 15th August 1999
...here we are in a new space, a new exhibition space which I hope will continue, and provide opportunities for artists in Kilkenny and outside to come and show their work.
It’s been beautifully done... it’s the use of an old building that’s been given a new form of life as an exhibition space. About five minutes ago it was the most densely attended exhibition I have ever seen; I couldn't get into the Claude Monet in The Royal Academy but this was per square foot the equal of it, which meant that none of you can see the work, which I have to recommend to you as worthy of your attention...
What we’re looking at here is the work of eleven painters and some of you might think of this as a dying breed of individual but it isn’t... I’m just finished a stint as an external examiner at the NCAD in Dublin, where I see a lot of the people in this exhibition have been at one time or another, and there are still people who paint although there is a kind of overriding philosophy that as soon as one hits any kind of difficulty whatsoever they resort to pc or video camera or whatever else thinking that this act will improve the work of art.
My own philosophy and belief is that painting, it’s great strength is the fact that it’s been in existence for hundreds of years... thousands of years; and merely by picking up a paintbrush in some knowledgeable way, an individual engages with the great traditions of painting, they are elevated in a way to a status of working with, in relation to, in a dialogue with other painters... and I would commend this exhibitions of paintings to you... I’m not going to go through the individual painters in the exhibition, I don’t know all of them, I don’t know all of their work...
I came here today earlier and this was the first time I’d seen the exhibition... some of them I do know, and some who I admire, and some are new faces; but in all cases what the paintings themselves demand is some time and contemplation... I feel that the exhibition has been very confidently and well installed and it’s worthy and demands of your attention. I’d like to thank Lucy for asking me to open the exhibition. I’m a local person, artist who lives in the area now for the last 4 or 5 years or whatever and it’s very nice to be wanted to do this kind of thing...as long as it’s not too often...it’s very nice... (on a weekly basis possibly it becomes too much), but I’m delighted to do it...! I’m delighted to welcome this venue and I do hope it continues...
I think, although I’m probably not qualified to judge, I only came to Kilkenny in the early ‘90’s, I think there has been a great increase in the quality and the attention to detail of the exhibitions that have been staged... a kind of flowering in some way, of the art in Kilkenny and it’s area... we’re here in North Kilkenny, in Freshford which is an outlying area of Kilkenny but nevertheless an important integral part of the community of Kilkenny. Everybody here goes into Kilkenny and is involved in the milieu, in the culture of Kilkenny. And what we’re doing here is not just trekking out on a sunday afternoon to an art exhibition, to amuse ourselves and look at pictures... this is the culture, this is our culture. The Victorian critic, Ruskin, William Ruskin described nations or countries and said about them that they write their own autobiographies, in three books, with three scripts. One is the book of their deeds, their history, what they do... the other is the book of their words; what they say about themselves. The third is the book of their art. Now none of the books can be understood without reference to the other but the only reliable book is the last one because there’s no strings attached and the art that we make is what’s left behind, and what I’d like to do here is to say you should celebrate, these are Irish painters here showing their work in Kilkenny and it’s worth coming to see; and it’s important... that’s all I want to say...