Visitors to the Irish Museum of Modern Art reached a record level of 350,000 in 1997, it was announced yesterday by its director, Mr Declan McGonagle. Speaking at a press conference in the museum, he attributed much of this attendance to the Andy Warhol exhibition (still continuing), which drew people of all ages, but had been particularly successful with young people.
Mr McGonagle said that IMMA continued to provide the best opportunities for people to see the best in art, contemporary and historical. This process would be extended in 1998 by a further representation of the museum's collection. The past year had been "tremendously successful" in terms of attendance and critical response, "and this momentum will carry through 1998 as we head towards the Millennium".
He also announced a substantial increase in the gallery space for the museum's collection. From June 25th the entire west wing will be allocated to this aim, with changing displays of recent and earlier acquisitions. These will include the first showing of the recent long-term loan of a collaborative piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Lee Jaffe.
Major exhibitions scheduled for this year will feature a large-scale presentation of the work of William Scott, who died in 1989 and had a European reputation in his lifetime. Though born in Greenock, Scotland, Scott regarded himself as an Ulsterman and was a central figure both in British and Irish painting in the decades after the war.
This exhibition - an important event not only here, but internationally - will include drawings as well as paintings, many of which have not been seen previously in public. It will run from July 22nd to November 1st.
Another major event will be the exhibition by Hughie O'Donoghue, English-born but Irish by ancestry and now living near Kilkenny, which will run from next October into February 1999. O'Donoghue is already an international figure; his recent show in Munich made a powerful impression.
The works of the Irish-born illustrator Brian Cronin, well known in New York but relatively little known in his homeland, will be on view from April 1st to June 1st.
Other events include a new large-scale work by the Los Angeles-based sculptor Peter Sheldon (March 13th-June 14th) and the Russian artist Ilya Kabakov (November 19th-April, 1999).