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Opening on Sunday February 6th, the spring exhibition from The Model, home of the Niland collection in Sligo, is a major exhibition of one of Ireland’s finest painters, and local son, Jack B. Yeats. Entitled The Outsider, and co-curated by Brian O’Doherty, the exhibition surveys Yeats’ career from his initial experiments in oils in the early 1900’s to his very last paintings completed just before his death in 1957. The show will bring many of Yeats’ great masterpieces together in Sligo for the first time in almost 40 years. Reared in Sligo by his maternal grandparents, Yeats spent much of his time travelling the town and county with his grandfather who owned a shipping business. The landscape and the characters he encountered during this time made a deep and lasting impression on the young artist, and he returned to the memories of his Sligo days for inspiration for his work again and again through out his life. In his later years Yeats acknowledged the deep influence of Sligo on his work when he said that he had never created a painting that did not have in it “at least a thought of Sligo”
Many of the works in The Outsider are drawn from the impressive Niland Collection of art, which now boasts 49 Jack B. Yeats works and a further 19 works from his father John, two from his sister and four by his nice Anne Yeats and one by his wife Mary Cottenham Yeats. The Model is delighted to be in a position to fulfil the ambitions of Nora Niland, the founder of The Niland Collection, by staging this ambitious survey show of Yeats work in 2010.
The paintings from the Niland Collection will be joined by pieces from the collections of The National Gallery of Ireland, Tate Britain and Limerick City Gallery of Art. Many more works have been gathered from private collections all over the world, some of which have not been exhibited publically since the 1950’s. The Model is delighted to be in a position to show these great works in Yeats’ hometown of Sligo.
Also included in the show will be two paintings from the Graham Greene estate, sold by Christie’s of London in December to a private collector. This collector has made the previously unseen paintings available to The Model for the duration of the show. ‘A Man in a Room Thinking,’ and ‘A Horseman Enters a Town at Night’, were recently sold for a combined value of almost €500,000. ‘A Horseman Enters a Town at Night’ is a beautiful, dark painting, with flashes of vermillion and cadmium yellow. This previously unseen oeuvre is considered to be one of Yeats’ masterpieces and visitors to The Model will have a unique opportunity to see it this coming February.
Arguably Ireland’s greatest 20th century painter, Yeats’ work underwent a massive shift throughout the 1920s. In the early part of the decade his style was firmly rooted in reality, however a marked change occurred which led to the wildly apocalyptic visions and romanticism of his later period.
The exhibition is co-curated by Brian O’Doherty, the internationally acclaimed artist, critic and theorist who knew Yeats in his final years and has written extensively about the painter.
The exhibition will open on Sunday 06 February and will run until 05 June 2011. The Outsider encompasses a series of curator’s tours and other educational events.
A very special open conversation between Brian O’Doherty and former Yeats Curator at The National Gallery of Ireland Dr. Hilary Pyle will mark the opening of the exhibition on Saturday, 05 February at 5pm. This discussion is free of charge however place are limited so early booking is advised.
The Model will also be holding a series of free children’s art workshops for a variety of ages, exploring Yeats paintings, commencing on Sunday February 6th. These workshops are free, though must be booked with The Model in advance on 071-914 1405 as places are strictly limited. Visit www.themodel.ie for a full workshop schedule.
The exhibition is supported by the PEACE III Programme, managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Sligo County Council on behalf of Sligo Peace & Reconciliation Partnership Committee. More info at www.themodel.ie
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