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Retrospective
Irish Museum of Modern Art
27 June 2007 - 30 September
Press release
A major retrospective of the work of the acclaimed Irish artist Anne Madden opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 27 June 2007. Spanning the artist’s entire career, Anne Madden: A Retrospective comprises some 60 works from the 1950s to date, including a number direct from the artist’s studio. The exhibition features some of Madden’s most important paintings, including early works inspired by the Burren and her series of Megaliths, Monoliths and Doorways, from the 1970s. The exhibition also presents early sculptural works, paintings from her Elegy, Pompeii , Odyssey and Garden series and new paintings from her Aurora Borealis series. The exhibition will be opened by the distinguished Irish artist and writer Brian O’Doherty (Patrick Ireland) at 6.00pm on Tuesday 26 June. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition and features essays by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA, and the poet Derek Mahon; a poem by Derek Mahon and a short text by Marcelin Pleynet; Anne Madden’s important essay A quest: some reflections on being a painter; and a comprehensive illustrated chronology compiled by Karen Sweeney. It is published by the Irish Museum of Modern Art in association with Scala.
Anne Madden: Painter and Muse, the widely-praised documentary film produced by Mind the Gap Films in 2006 and shown as part of RTE Television’s prestigious Arts Lives series, will be screened in the Lecture Room at IMMA at 11.00am and 4.00pm from 27 June to 10 July (excluding Mondays). Anne Madden will give the annual Winter Lecture at IMMA in December 2007.
Aurora borealis, Snake of Light, 2006, oil on linen, triptych, 146 x 267 cm, Private Collection
Director's ForewordWe are very pleased to present a full-scale retrospective of the work of Anne Madden. The exhibition focuses on her paintings, but also includes some of her small sculptures. One of the missions of the Irish Museum of Modern Art is precisely to present surveys of Irish artists alongside those of artists from abroad. The Anne Madden exhibition follows other ones devoted to Louis le Brocquy, Hughie O’Donoghue, Willie Doherty, Kathy Prendergast, Tony O’Malley, Dorothy Cross, Barry Flanagan and Michael Craig-Martin. All of them are also well- represented in the collection, as indeed is Anne Madden. Working now for over 50 years, she has recently made an extraordinary group of paintings based on the atmospheric phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis. This group was a catalyst for the exhibition to happen, and will be, without doubt, one of its highlights.
Anne Madden spent long periods of her adolescence in the Burren, County Clare. She was fascinated by the landscape, which somehow became an archetypal one that could be used to explore different questions. In the 1960s, her work was close to abstraction, as she experimented by pouring paint on horizontal canvases. Rather than representing nature, she wanted to find an equivalent to its inner laws. Madden, however, has always been interested in the symbolic potential of the image, and her later poured paintings refer also to archaeological sites. Since then, the artist has worked on different series, including paintings related to the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, ones depicting nocturnal gardens, or the more recent works dedicated to the myths of Odysseus and Icarus. The exhibition shows examples of all of these series, demonstrating that, even if formal aspects are very important, a Romantic longing is always present.
I would like to thank all the people involved in this project, starting with the lenders to the exhibition, including several public collections in Ireland and France. These thanks should be extended to the authors in this book. They include the poet Derek Mahon, a long-time friend of the artist, who has written an illuminative text and poem; Karen Sweeney, assistant curator, who has compiled a detailed chronology; and to the artist herself whose text ‘A quest’ is republished here. We are also reproducing a short text by the French critic Marcelin Pleynet, translated into English by Derek Mahon. This publication has been beautifully designed by Anne Brady and her team at Vermillion. It is also our first collaboration with Scala in London. I would like to acknowledge Oliver Craske from Scala and also Tom Cobbe for their editing input. Thanks also to all the staff at IMMA involved in this exhibition. Finally, and especially, I would like to thank Anne Madden for her work and for her support of this project.Enrique juncosa, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art
PAST EXHIBITIONS
February 26 - March 2005
A Space of Time
New Art Centre
Sculpture Park & Gallery
Roche Court, East Winterslow
Salisbury, WiltshireMay 14 - June 2005
A Space of Time
Centre Culturel Irlandais
5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 ParisMay 14 - 2 June 2002
The Garden of Love. New Work
Taylor Galleries, DublinAugust 8 - 11 October 2000
Anne Madden, A Space of Time
Anne Madden Trajectories, Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca, Mexico 2000
Sponsored by the Cultural Relations Committee of IrelandJune 1 - 30, 1999.
Centre Internationale d'Art Contemporain
Château de Carros
Inauguration of a fresco
and exhibition of studies and paintings.Summer 1998
Château de Carros
(Anne Madden & Louis le Brocquy)
Opening of the permanent roomOpening June 7, 1998
Anne Madden, Open Spaces
Kilkenny Castle
Co. Kilkenny
Concertina catalogue availableHugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin
Anne Madden, Trajectories
November 12, 1997 - 25 January, 1998
Catalogue availableChâteau de Cagnes
29eme Festival Internationale de la Peinture
November 21 - 20 January 1997
Representing Ireland
Catalogue availbleChâteau de Tours
(Anne Madden & Louis le Brocquy)
June 28 -31 August 1997
Anne Madden, Odyssée et Icare
Catalogue available
