Merlin Holland, grandson of Oscar and Constance Wilde, is practically commuting between London and Dublin these days. The trip over to open Maggi Hambling's exhibition in the Hugh Lane Gallery was his third in as many weeks but he insisted that he didn't mind in the least as he was so fond of Dublin.
Maggi, whose exhibition is called A Con- versation With Oscar Wilde, has been a lifelong fan of the playwright, having first heard his children's stories at the age of six. Her exhibition includes a maquette for a memorial sculpture that will be located in St Martin in the Fields, on the edge of London's theatre-land.
No marble bust this, the monument will have Oscar's head rearing out of a marble sarcophagus, talking and smoking, an idea which delighted Merlin who quoted his grandfather as saying that stiff marble memorials "added another horror to the thought of death".
Director Barbara Dawson had gathered together a crowd that made for a real party atmosphere. Brian Burns, who gave a generous contribution to the gallery, flew over especially from San Francisco with his wife Eileen. A Guinness delegation included the Hon Desmond, his wife Penny, and sister-inlaw Viv.
Patrick Mason, who is currently directing The Secret Fall Of Constance Wilde at the Gate in Dublin, popped along to enjoy the party, as did art historian Dorothy Walker, whose book on Irish modern art will be published next week. The British ambassador, Veronica Sutherland, who is a great fan of Maggi's work, chatted with the artist and invited her to bring her dogs for a walk next time she's over.
Other party-goers included Josephine Kelliher of the Rubicon gallery; John Earl- Drax of the Marlborough Gallery in London; David and Elizabeth Palmer of Independent Newspapers; Lord Henry Mount Charles; Prof Edward Coyne of the American College which is situated in Wilde's old house in Merrion Square, and Joan DeFreyne, founder of the Dublin Wilde Society.