Page 46 - Studio International - November 1971

Commentary I Jack B. Yeats Centenary Exhibition at the National Gallery
Race in Hy Brasil 1937 28 x 36 in.
Collection: J. B. Kearney, Cork of Ireland includes some 15o works
(watercolours, drawings and paintings) shown
2 Jack B. Yeats in the central suite of five galleries on the
THE JACK B. YEATS CENTENARY EXHIBITION AT
Man from Aranmore 1905
NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND ground floor. Downstairs, in the National Art
14 5/8 x 10 3/8 in.
24 SEPTEMBER-31 DECEMBER Courtesy National Gallery of Ireland Reference Library are Yeats's Broadsheets
(popular works compared to the cabinet works
3 Oskar Kokoschka
ROGER HILTON, RECENT DRAWINGS AND so often produced by Kokoschka). The Trinity
London (with the Houses of Parliament) 1967
PAINTINGS AT Oil on canvas 36 x 53 in. College Library has a Synge Centenary which
Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd.
WADDINGTON GALLERY, 2 CORK STREET, WI includes the collaboration with Yeats on the
9 SEPTEMBER-2 OCTOBER `Congested Districts' articles for the Manchester
Guardian in 1905. The Centenary Exhibition
TOM PHILLIPS AT runs in Dublin until the end of the year,
ANGELA FLOWERS GALLERY, 3 & 4 PORTLAND
I
MEWS, D'ARBLAY STREET, WI
29 SEPTEMBER-19 OCTOBER
DEREK SOUTHALL AT THE
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, NASH HOUSE
GALLERY, SWI
7 OCTOBER-7 NOVEMBER 1971

Jack B. Yeats, Ireland's National Painter. Yes,
although 'national painter' is a category made
suspect by chauvinism, propaganda or
sentimentality, Yeats was and is that. The
dedicated activity of the institutions concerned
with his Centenary in Dublin, the scale of the
exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, its
popularity Che had an eye for the divils', 'he
was tairrible fond of people and horses') and
the essential qualities of his art, all enforce
his status as a genuine national artist. One is
reminded of the letters sent to him by
Kokoschka, simply addressed 'Jack B. Yeats,
the greatest living Irishman'. Beyond the
flamboyance of the gesture, the story indicates
Yeats's place in the life of his country. The letters
were promptly delivered to the artist in Dublin,
as would those be to an artist of lesser but
corresponding stature: L. S. Lowry, the 2
greatest living Mancunian. Yeats was national moving to the Ulster Museum in January. The
in the sense that a major achievement of an strength of the Belfast showing will depend on
order beyond nationalism developed through the willingness of owners to follow the lead of
confrontation with the particular in people, the National Gallery of Ireland and Mr Victor
place, myth and historical event. By 'national' Waddington in lending work there. There is to
in this sense is implied an extension of the be no London showing—despite obvious
individual and personal without loss or reasons why this would have been especially
coarsening : not a narrowing contraction. If he valuable at the present time. The exhibition
were less national, Yeats would also be less goes on to the New York Cultural Center from
universal. The subtle way in which this is so April to June. The catalogue by James White
can best be suggested in this short note by is available at £2 in paperback at the exhibition,
comparison with an artist with whom Yeats has £6 from the London publishers in hardback.2
too often been simple-mindedly linked by The colour blocks are generally adequate,
critics : Kokoschka, a new exhibition of whose although the black and white in many cases
work recently opened in London.• I would lack clarity. Apart from the entry for No. 13,
suggest that despite Kokoschka's outstanding On the Broads, where it is stated that only four
natural talents and his greater fashionableness watercolours were executed there in 1899
—reflected in the more frequent exposure of (actually 20 were exhibited at Waddington's in
his work and volume of publications to say 1967), the catalogue is thorough and exact. It
nothing of market values—it is Yeats who includes excerpts from the catalogue raisonée
emerges as the more adequate and permanent of the 1200-odd oils being prepared by Hilary
artist. Pyle, author of the excellent Yeats biography
But first a word about the exhibitions. The published last year. On the basis of this Yeats
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