A DECADE AGO, it was increasingly plain that the National Gallery of Ireland was at a crisis stage and that repairs, money and fresh thinking about its present and future role were urgently needed. Apart from chronic under-staffing, it was beset by major, and immediate, structural problems such as a leaking roof. Was an important national asset to face neglect and lead virtually a subsistence existence, as had been the case with the National Museum for decades?
However, in recent years Irish governments have finally learned the value of cultural assets and cultural tourism. The essential initiatives were, taken, the necessary funds were supplied and with the end of the century only a few years away, the NGI has rapidly been brought up to the level of comparable galleries in Europe. In a week's time, the public can judge for themselves, when it formally reopens and familiar, well-loved paintings can be seen again, but mostly in unfamiliar places.
The role of a public gallery is a demanding one at any time. Its primary and obvious role is to show works of art to the public, but that in itself involves a whole complex of specialised tasks. These include routine administration, conservation, curatorship, restoration work, intensive scholarship, the lending of works to international exhibitions, the organisation of lectures, running a bookshop and a restaurant as well as providing library services, etc. And in many institutions today, even these have been over-shadowed by that typical modern preoccupation fund-raising.
Since it closed its doors some months ago, the National Gallery has been undergoing probably the greatest overhaul in its history. The whole north wing, built in 1968 and regarded as a triumph at the time, had already been closed to the public for several years. This has been the epicentre of the entire programme of renewal, since it has been stripped down to a shell and remodelled entirely, from within.
New lifts, new and ultra-modern forms of lighting, a completely new central-heating system (the previous one was notoriously unsatisfactory), new decor (adjoining rooms are painted in contrasting colours), alteration of the basic wall space and massive rehanging all combine to make it scarcely recognisable. There are even new benches, specially designed by the furniture school in Letterfrack, and special wheelchair facilities have been added.
Raymond Keaveney, the director, intends to have over 7,000 works fully ready for display before the public is readmitted a week from today (the official inauguration of the new dispensation will be carried out on Friday night by Michael D. Higgins as Minister for Arts and Culture). These will include prints and sculpture as well as paintings. For months, according to some reports, Keaveney has hardly left the gallery except to sleep.
It is, of course, only a few years since a major refurbishment was carried out on the Milltown Wing, which is the oldest section. The decor here has been left fundamentally unchanged, although a series of marble plinths has been added on the ground floor to hold portrait busts. The reception area, also much remodelled recently, will undergo some further changes, and so will the whole system of signage and labelling. For months, teams of experts have worked on the massive gilt frames, restoring them, repainting them, even carving replacements for sections damaged or broken off over the years.
The most striking change, however, is probably in the ground-floor area which used to be a kind of outdoor sculpture yard - and somehow, was never wholly successful as that. It has been roofed over and is now officially the "Atrium", a key area in the disposition of the whole building.
Through it you cross over from the Irish paintings to the English section: the new entrance to the restaurant is at one end, and the bookshop is at the other. And at each end, also, a short flight of stairs leads to the new Print Room and the Print Gallery respectively. Four "panels" painted by Felim Egan (not yet installed when I went through it) will hang high on the main wall.
The main first-floor gallery, which used to be hung solely with Italian Baroque pictures, now holds Baroque works from various countries most of them very large, since it has been discovered that this area dwarfs any painting of moderate size. The gallery's Caravaggio, which made international headlines when "discovered" a few years ago, now hangs in a room of its own in the reconstituted 1968 wing, surrounded by the works of Caravaggio's followers and imitators from all over Europe. Since the Dublin Vermeer was borrowed for the major exhibition seen in Washington, and now in The Hague, Washington has loaned a magnificent Rembrandt self-portrait in recompense.
The Dutch, French, German and Italian schools (Italian paintings, traditionally, are the core of the collection) have been regrouped, and a look down through long vistas of open doors will show a Perugino Pieta judiciously placed at one end. Another view opens on to a massive canvas by Jordaens. Incidentally, the Goya portrait stolen in the Beit robbery has been exhaustively restored, and will now be seen again for the first time in several years.
THE projected Yeats Museum still lies a few years in the future, and will mean further commotion in the Irish section on the ground floor. An entire new portrait room shows Jack Yeats himself, painted by his very gifted father, and there are also self-portraits by Leech, Sleator, Hilda van Stockum and other artists of note, side-by-side with portraits of former directors including Bodkin, Armstrong, James White, McGreevey, etc. And there is a new space for the icon collection, small but valued.
Raymond Keaveney is particularly proud of his massive new hydraulic lifts, one of which can accommodate up to 60 visitors moving between several floors, and can also carry heavy sculptures when necessary an important factor. Storage space has been moved to the top of the building, instead of the traditional dark underground rooms; this too will make life easier for the often overworked staff.
The entire "Big Fix", he says, began with the refurbishment and rehanging of the Milltown Wing in 1990, carried out by Bolgers' Builders under the agency of the Office of Public Works. The public's response to that initiative was immediate and positive. The next step was a massive four-year plan for the entire gallery, for which the architect has been Stephen Kane of the OPW.
For years, the humidity, defective lighting and basically "unsympathetic" ambience of the 1968 wing had been major drawbacks, and the disposition of its inner spaces was another. "Previously we had five rooms there, now we have 11," and the Atrium, he points out, is itself a completely new space. All this has meant more works can be hung or shown overall. He feels the £9 million allocated so far has been wisely and carefully spent.
The director admits that there are still staffing problems, but adds that this is an ongoing affair - though he points to the lack of a registrar, almost unique in such a public institution., "We have a number of people who are responsible for a lot of disciplines, but that is something we are working on. We have put our ideas together on what we see as the future of the gallery. This will be a kind of core document which will help us to manage our affairs over the coming years.
He points out that apart from culture's inherent and obvious values, cultural tourism also provides hard cash to a country such as ours. "We get over a million visitors a year here. That compares well with the Rijksmuseum, or the Victoria and Albert, and knocks the socks off the Mauritshuis or the National Gallery of Scotland. The value of the Vermeer show to The Hague has been calculated at £70 to £80 million - tickets are sold out, and every bed in the area has been booked. The Monet exhibition in Chicago brought $400 million to the city."
Keaveney is keenly conscious that the NGI still lacks a really adequate area in which to stage exhibitions. However, the adjacent site recently bought on Clare Street will at least add 50,000 square feet to his available space. Meanwhile, an architect will be chosen before long for the Yeats Museum, designs for it should be ready early in the New Year, and construction work should start either next year or in 1998.
The Clare Street project, he points out, will cost the Irish taxpayer nothing, since European funding is promised. In fact, he thinks it might offer the opportunity of an excellent Millennium project for Dublin "better than a clock that doesn't work in the bottom of the Liffey."