Beckett's eyes have it: The eyes of Samuel Beckett followed viewers around the room of Dublin's National Photographic Archive.
The photographs of Beckett taken by John Minihan went on view last Wednesday. At the show's opening, Aongus Ó hAonghusa, director of the National Library, described the pictures as "a rarity, given their subject's reluctance to pose for photographs".
"I had the tenacity to track him down," explained Minihan on the relationship of trust he established with Beckett. In later years, he added "he allowed me to photograph him in 1985 for his 80th birthday the following year".
In the most famous photograph from Minihan's collection, entitled Samuel Beckett: Centenary Shadows, which was also launched in book form, the writer is in a coffee shop in Paris, looking into the distance. "It's my favourite because of the eyes," said the French ambassador, Frédéric Grasset, who opened the show and launched the book. "In this one he doesn't look at you. In the others he looks at you, he watches you, [ but in this] it really captures Beckett as a man, as a writer, as a character, everything. And also Paris, you smell the streets, you smell the Frenchness, all the atmosphere, through it."
"That's the killer shot," said photographer Johnnie Doyle, looking admiringly at this iconic image later. "The nose, the eyes, the face are perfectly focused and the rest falls away beautifully. That's why it's so intense."
"The photographs really catch what I imagine he's about. He's very soulful and I gather he was quite charming and quiet. They are beautiful," said Mary Greene, an English teacher at Loreto College, Foxrock. "I've never seen those before," said actor Nuala Hayes, looking at the series of photographs Minihan took of Beckett in a hotel room in London in 1980. "They are so human and revealing. They are really touching."
Samuel Beckett: Centenary Shadows continues at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 until May 27. Samuel Beckett: Centenary Shadows by John Minihan is published by Robert Hale, London
Images of war with no sign of fatigue
The war in Iraq took centre stage at a group show which opened at the Rubicon Gallery in Dublin on Wednesday night.
Declaration by Irish artist Tom Molloy, based on an Arabic translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, appealed to art student Michael Murphy from Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny, because it looks at the war from the Iraqi perspective. "Imagine if you were coming from the Islamic side," he said. Another piece by Molloy, who is the only Irish artist in this international show, uses the image of a hooded Iraqi prisoner on a box in Abu Ghraib prison as the motif on a roll of camouflage combat material. "People are not fatigued by the war," said Molloy. "They are not aware of it because it's not in the news," he said.
Patricia Tsouros, a board member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, admired The Quick and the Dead by Canadian artist Stephen Andrews, describing it as "very abstract" and "quite a strong piece that I really like". The other artists represented in the show are Barbara Pollack, Marc Handelman, Steve Mumford and Josephine Meckseper.
Ciaran Bennett, president of the International Association of Art Critics, Ireland, who was at the opening, was pleased to report that the association's 2009 congress will be held in Dublin. Also present were Hugh Mulholland, former director of the recently closed Ormeau Baths Gallery in central Belfast and poet Michael O'Siadhail with his wife, Brid.
On foot of this show, entitled This Ain't No Fooling Around, there will be a panel discussion at the RHA Gallagher Gallery on Tuesday, April 25th, as part of the year-long Critical Voices 3 debates and discussion series, curated by Helen Meany. "The focus of the discussion will be on how artists engage with the real world when we are bombarded with media images of war," said Meany. The discussion will be chaired by Prof Liam Kennedy, of the Clinton Institute for American Studies in UCD.
This Ain't No Fooling Around, curated by Joseph R Wolin, continues at the Rubicon Gallery, 10 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, until May 6
Portraitist in retrospect
Singer Austin Gaffney, musician John Sheahan of The Dubliners and Sen Feargal Quinn were among those who came to a retrospective of work by artist Pat Phelan.
Opened by businessman Ben Dunne, A Pat Phelan Retrospective is the inaugural show at a new space on Dublin's Capel Street called Gallery 53.
"I did six lord mayors," said Phelan, recalling his years as a busy portraitist. Subjects who sat for the Waterford-born artist over the past 30 years include Mary Lavin, Mick Lally, Ronnie Drew, Noel Purcell, Maureen Potter, Sean Haughey and Michael Smurfit.
"I painted George Colley," Phelan recalled.
"He thought he could smoke a cigar and walk up and down the studio [while he was being painted]," he said.
"I tried to bring the people to life. I think I've achieved that. People say it's easy but you have to work pretty hard at it."
Among family members who came to the opening of the show at the new gallery were the artist's wife, Nora; his sisters, Gaye Ryall and Ita Phelan; his daughter Patricia Reeve; his grandchildren Jessica Reeve (7) and Claire (18), Miriam (16) and Eleanor Phelan (14).
"It's great to be around to be able to look at the painting having been through what I've been through," said Dunne about the artist's portrait of himself and his wife, Mary.
Phelan is "a God-given talent that is to be admired", declared Dunne. "Like all great artists I don't think you'll ever retire."
Amy Fogarty, a DCU engineering student, who sat for the artist as a child, stood in front of her portrait and recalled the experience.
She was painted by Phelan kneeling beside her dog, Ossie, at home in the family garden when she was about seven years old, she said.
A Pat Phelan Retrospective continues at Gallery 53, 1st Floor (over Cody's furniture shop), 53 Capel Street, Dublin 1 until April 29
Welcome on Aosdána's mat
The new Aosdána members, like daffodils "tossing their heads in sprightly dance", stepped into the sunshine for the waiting photographers.
Inside, the sun filtered into the Arts Council reception rooms at Merrion Square, Dublin as writers, playwrights, painters, poets and film-makers gathered to welcome the 24 newly elected members to Aosdána, an affiliation of those creative artists in Ireland who have made "an outstanding contribution to the arts" here, said Olive Braiden, chairwoman of the Arts Council. "This is a happy and auspicious occasion when we celebrate two years' intake of new members to Aosdána. Being elected to Aosdána is to be honoured by your own peers, the leading artists in this country. For an artist, there can be no greater recognition than that," she said.
Among the newcomers were film-maker and photographer George Morrison, playwright and storyteller Eugene McCabe; writer and Irish Times columnist Michael Viney, poet Eva Bourke, photographer Amelia Stein and artist Donald Teskey.
Nineteen of the 24 new members elected over the last two years attended, including visual artist Jaki Irvine, whose installation The Silver Bridge is currently on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art; playwright Billy Roche, who has just completed a collection of short stories, turning one of them, Table Manners into a screenplay with Conor McPherson for production by Treasure Films; and Shelley McNamara, the first architect to be elected to Aosdána and whose company, Grafton Architects, is currently designing a university building for Milan.
Also there were visual artist Grace Weir, who heads to Oxford on a two-month residency shortly to research new work; artists Sam Walsh, Michael Kane and Mick O'Dea; writers Anthony Cronin and Jennifer Johnston and composers Seoirse Bodley and Roger Doyle.