Irish Art 1920-2020: Perspectives on change by Catherine Marshall and Yvonne Scott, is a generously-illustrated book in which eleven authors examine different aspects of Irish art through the hundred years or so since independence. During this time, art in Ireland has borne witness to unprecedented social and political transformation, and this book of essays considers how some of the established perspectives in Irish visual culture were challenged and represented during this time.
Art in Ireland has been shaped by a range of factors the countrys geographic position, post-colonial history, political upheaval, religious environment and of course the complex interconnections both within and beyond the country, prompted by shifting patterns within society identities, migration, technology, for example as well as the artists evolving engagement with the wider world.
This is not a linear story; each chapter explores a particular aspect of art, how it reflected the interests of artists, the environments in which they worked both in Ireland and abroad, and how subjects and methods changed over time. The extensive richness of the last century or so, as well as the diversity, creativity and originality of the artists means that no single text can ever be comprehensive, and this one makes no such claims. Rather, his book, however, is a kind of map; it does not pretend to fully represent the entire narrative but may provide some useful clues to negotiating parts of it, or at least the basis for further exploration and debate.
Catherine Marshall is a curator and art historian. She lectured in art history at Trinity College Dublin, the National College of Art and Design and University College Dublin. As founding head of collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art she curated exhibitions of outsider art from the Musgrave Kinley Collection, exhibitions of Irish art in China, USA and the UK and throughout Ireland with the IMMA National Programme, and was curator to the Engagement project, which brought together artists from the Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent, Callan, with artists from widely differing mainstream practices for a series of exhibitions 201321. She co-edited Art and architecture of Ireland, vol. 5, Twentieth century (2014) and Janet Mullarney (2019). She is an active member of Na Cailleacha (Na Cailleacha.weebly.com). In 2019 she was recipient of the first honorary doctorate in the History of Art from University College Dublin.
Yvonne Scott is a fellow emeritus at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. She was the founding director of TRIARC (Trinity College Irish Art Research Centre), and an Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture there. Her research focuses particularly on modern and contemporary art, specialising in the representation of landscape, nature and environment, and she has published extensively in the field. She has hosted numerous symposia on themes such as eco-criticism, including In this brief time: art, environment and ecology, and convened the visual art section of the Art in the Anthropocene conference at Trinity College Dublin, June 2019. She has served on several boards in the university, as well as in public art institutions and galleries. She was Chair of the Advisory Board, and contributor to Art and architecture of Ireland, vol. 5, Twentieth century (2014), and to Modern Ireland in 100 artworks (2016).
