LCGA Exhibitions

Landscape I

Permanent Collection Exhibition 

23rd August – 5th October

Celebrating the LCGA Permanent Collection’s particular holding of Landscape Art, LANDSCAPE is the first part of a two part display of the Historic and Contemporary works of Art in the Landscape genre, held by LCGA. Marking the generous permanent loan of FOREST by Sean Cotter, through the Contemporary Irish Art Society (CIAS), works by Irish landscape artists such as James Arthur O Connor are joined by Limerick artists such as Sean Keating, in welcoming FOREST into the Collection. In October, FOREST will be showcased alongside LCGA’s contemporary landscape works.

Seán Cotter, Forest, mixed media on cotton canvas, 76 x 274cm (each panel),

donated by the Artist & CIAS 2012

Seán Cotter: Artist’s Statement

‘Landscape works as a metaphor for life and its dramas, whether in turmoil or at peace. Wide open spaces can be shut down by a few well placed lines and so emulate the constraints of the modern world or a persons desire to contain and control their own immediate emotional environment. Blurred boundaries between areas of light and dark recall the sometimes difficult choices that are neither right nor wrong. While history, whether the viewers or the images, impacts on every work it is its own aesthetic that carries it off in the end and it is the exploration of my medium that keeps me behind my studio door. ‘ www.seancotter.com

Cotter’s work sees darkness and lightness jostling on canvas.  In FOREST, descent into abstraction is driven by gravity, the composition is scientific; what was a soft colour becomes infused with darkness and coldness. Cotter’s paintings are beautiful cool exercises, using the landscape idiom, drawing the viewer into an interior world of contrasts both beautiful and infernal.

About The Contemporary Irish Art Society: the Contemporary Irish Art Society was founded in 1962 by such progressive figures as Gordon Lambert, Cecil King, Stanley Mosse, James White and Michael Scott, with Sir Basil Goulding as Chairman. The purpose of the society was to encourage a greater level of patronage of living Irish artists which, at the time, was extremely low. This was mainly achieved by raising funds to purchase artworks by living artists, which were then donated to public collections. The first purchase in 1962 was an important painting by Pat Scott, donated to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, and funded by nine generous patrons who each put £10 in a hat, following a private view at the Dawson Gallery. Over the following 12 years the society purchased 37 works for the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, until in 1974, Dublin Corporation started to provide an annual purchasing fund for the gallery. The enthusiasm and vision of these founding members of the society was the catalyst which led to the development of many important art collections in Ireland. In 1980 the society assembled a collection of Works on Paper which was shown at the Sense of Ireland Festival and was subsequently presented to University College Dublin. The society has continued to support Irish artists through the purchase and donation of artworks to institutions throughout Ireland. Some 40 public institutions have received works by contemporary Irish artists, including the Crawford Gallery, Limerick Municipal Gallery, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, IMMA, as well as hospitals, and other official bodies.  www.contemporaryirishartsociety.com