merrion street

Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltact today (Tuesday 19 February 2013) officially opened a new exhibition entitled Analysing Cubism, Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, Mary Swanzy and Masters of European Modernism in the New Galleries, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).

This exhibition consists of over 50 works and explores Cubism from French and Irish perspectives. The art movement known as Cubism was established by Pablo Picasso and George Braque and went on to become one of art's most internationally dominant innovations of the 20th century. The largest concentration of work in the exhibition is by Albert Gleizes, Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett but also features work by Marie Swanzy, Louis Le Brocquy, Pablo Picasso and George Braque among others.

Commenting on the opening, Minister Deenihan said: "This exhibition highlights the significance of Cubism artists in the history of modern art in Ireland and seeks to place their contribution in context, examining the influence of their teachers, as well as exploring the work of some of the leading international exponents of Cubism. Analysing Cubism takes us into the special Continental setting in which Hone, Jellett and other Irish Artists worked in the 1920s and 1930s."

Minister Deenihan continued: "This project is the result of a hugely successful collaboration between IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork and includes several key works on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland and private collectors. An exhibition of this standard and calibre is deserving of public exposure to the greatest extent possible and is, I hope, the first of many such joint ventures between these three galleries. It is important to note that Analysing Cubism is one of the key features of Culture Connects – our culture programme celebrating Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first six months of 2013 and I have every confidence that it will draw the great visitor numbers it deserves in all locations in which it will be displayed."

The Exhibition will open at IMMA on 19 February and will run until 26 May 2013. Afterwards it will go on display in the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork from 20 June to 1 September and then will travel to the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio in Bainbridge, Co. Down from 13 September to 30 November 2013.