UCD School of Art History & Cultural Policy

Scoil Stair na hEalaíne agus an Pholasaí Chultúrtha UCD

School News & Events

New Publication - The Fusion of Neo-Classical Principles (Wordwell)

Edited by Lynda Mulvin this book of essays makes a wide-ranging and stimulating contribution to current scholarly debates about the nature of Neo-Classicism, that critical cultural development that signals the arrival both of recognisable modernity and of internationalism in the western tradition. Written by some of the leading experts on the subject this book considers the manner in which Neo-Classical principles and knowledge were translated into practice and adopted by the artists, designers, builders and decorative artists of the Neo-Classical period. This publication is the result of a conference held in May 2009, organised by the School of Art History & Cultural Policy in association with the Irish Architectural Archive and National Gallery of Ireland. [Irish Times]

Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty has been appointed Chair of the board of the Irish Architectural Foundation. Established in 2005, the IAF's role is to be a vibrant and passionate organisation that excites its audiences about the value of architecture. It serves a focal point for the many people and organisations who wish to champion the power of architecture and urban design, and co-ordinates the promotion of Irish architecture internationally.

The Michael McCarthy Bequest of Books

The UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy would gratefully like to acknowledge the bequest of a large number of books from the estate of the late Michael J. McCarthy, Professor of Art History at UCD between 1994 and his retirement in 2004. There are about 1200 volumes in total and are concentrated in the areas of British and Irish architectural history of the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, architectural theory and taste, the Grand Tour and cultural tourism, and British cultural and social history. These books will be made available to senior students with access to the Françoise Henry Reading Room. The bequest represents only part of Professor McCarthy’s library; prior to his death he made similar donations to the Irish Architectural Archive and to the Chester Beatty Library. We would like to express our gratitude to Michael’s family for facilitating this legacy. A reception was held in the School on the 1^st March, 2011, the first anniversary of his passing, to mark this generous bequest and to honour his memory.

For an obituary of Professor McCarthy, please see Professor Michael J. McCarthy Obituary

Anglo-Irish orientalists, travellers, Dilletanti and architects: Ireland, the Mediterranean and book culture 1607-1810 - a one-day symposium that explored the theme of Ireland, the Mediterranean and book culture in the early modern period, celebrating the desire to gather and transport knowledge with a view to providing new information and creating impetus for artistic movements such as neo-classicism in Ireland, Europe and beyond. [Symposium Brochure]

Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty elected to the RIA - Professor James-Chakraborty was among six UCD professors elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy on 27th May. Membership of the RIA is awarded to those who have attained distinction in education and research. It is a public recognition of academic excellence and is the highest academic honour in Ireland.

Visual Artists' News Sheet - Beginning in May 2011 Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald will be writing a column for the Visual Artists' News Sheet, the monthly magazine published by Visual Artists Ireland (the all Ireland development and resource body for professional visual artists, providing services, facilities and resources, operating an artistic programme and acting as an advocate for the interests of artists).

ARTstor collaboration - The School of Art History and Cultural Policy is collaborating with ARTstor, the nonprofit digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences, to share 620 images of the architecture and built environment of Dublin. These images provide a visual record of the development of Dublin's architecture from the medieval to the early modern period. Included are many of its major civic and ecclesiastical buildings, together with important examples of domestic architecture. The collection in ARTstor will include images of the exteriors, interiors, and decorative details of individual buildings as well as streetscapes and general views of the built environment.

Orientalism and Anglo-Irish scholarship 1740-1810 in the Gennadius Library, Athens - a one-day symposium on the subject of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Anglo-Irish Travellers to Greece and their published books. Held in the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies on 4th June, this event was organised by the School of Art History and Cultural Policy in association with the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens and the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies, Athens.

Book launch - The launch of Dr Paula Murphy's Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture, Native Genius Reaffirmed took place in Newman House on 28 April.

Recent Guest Lectures

'Associations promoting art in the public sphere: new exhibiting spaces in the Enlightenment and Romanticism' [April 5, 2012] - a lecture by J. Pedro Lorente, University of Zaragossa
'Outside the Canon of High Renaissance Art: Masterpieces by Leone and Pompeo Leoni in Spain', [March 29, 2012] - a lecture by Dr Rosemaire Mulcahy, Adjunct Professor at UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy
'Heroes and Kings of the Shahnama: The Iranian National Epic and the Chester Beatty Library', [February 1, 2011] - a lecture by Dr. Elaine Wright, Curator of Islamic Art, Chester Beatty Library
'David Chipperfield: Public Works', [November 11, 2010] - a lecture by internationally acclaimed British architect Sir David Chipperfield, presented in association with the Office of Public Works and the National Gallery of Ireland.
'Patrons, Piety and Self-Promotion in Venetian Renaissance Painting', [September 23, 2010] - a lecture by Professor Peter Humfrey, University of St Andrews
'From the Spanish Match to the Spanish Civil War: The British and Irish in Spain 1623- 1939' [April 8, 2010] - a lecture by Dr David Howarth, Reader in History of Art, Edinburgh University.
'Irish Farmhouse Interiors through Artists' Eyes: Genre Painting as evidence for 19th century Material Culture' [March 25, 2010] - a lecture by Dr Claudia Kinmonth.
'The Royal Hospital & the Collins Barracks' [February 25, 2010] - a guest lecture by Dr Edward McParland.
‘interludium’ [January 26, 2010] - a lecture by Sean Shanahan who created an installation in the stairhall of Newman House which engages with the architecture and interior decoration of this Georgian townhouse.

Public Lectures and Conference Papers

Lynda Mulvin, 'Nuremberg and The Ruins of Baalbek, otherwise Heliopolis in Coelosyria: overlapping historical processes?', CIHA conference - The Challenge of the Object, Nuremburg, 15 July 2012
Roisin Kennedy, 'The Post-impressionist exhibitions in Dublin in 1911-12', Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane, 24 June 2012
Kathleen James-Chakraborty, 'Beyond the Avant-Garde: Addressing Vernacular Modernism', European Architectural History Network, Brussels, 2 June 2012
Lynda Mulvin, 'Cyrene and Apollonia: the classical urban plan as a measure of opposites', The Classical Urban Plan: Monumentality, Continuity and Change Session, European Architectural History Network, Brussels, 31 May 2012
Kathleen James-Chakraborty, 'Bauhaus: Art as Life', Goethe-Institut, 21 May 2012
Lynda Mulvin, 'Roman Religious Practices at Baalbek, Lebanon', Classical Association of Ireland, Sligo Branch, 17 May 2012
Paula Murphy, 'St Patrick's Cathedral, Nineteenth-Century Sculpture', St Patrick's Cathedral, 10 May 2012
Roisin Kennedy,'A revolution in Paint. Paul Cézanne at Aix en Provence', Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland, 24 April 2012
Conor Lucey, 'From Rococo to Rot: Interior Decoration in Dublin 1760-1800', Society of Architectural Historians Conference, Detroit, 20 April 2012
Emily Mark-FitzGerald, 'Commemorating the Irish Famine: Monuments & Memory in Ireland and the Diaspora', Art History Seminar Series, University of Melbourne, 18 April 2012
Lynda Mulvin, 'Perge and Side: the 'Mad Men' or Rival cities of Roman Pamphylia', Society of Architectural Historians Conference, Detroit, 18 April 2012
Emily Mark-FitzGerald,'Remembering the Irish Famine', Public lecture, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 5 April 2012
Paula Murphy, 'Vincent van Gogh: in search of the Light', Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland, 28 March 2012
Roisin Kennedy, 'Fantasy versus reality in Irish Art', National Gallery of Ireland, study morning on Fables and Fairy Tales in Irish Art, 24 March 2012
Lynda Mulvin, 'Late medieval friaries in Ireland: a review of architectural form', From Ireland outwards: interactions between Ireland and western Christendom in the late medieval period Symposium, University College Cork, 23 March 2012
Emily Mark-FitzGerald, 'Monuments, museums & the memory of migration in Canada', University of Limerick Symposium Famine Memory and the Irish Diaspora: Migrants, Remembrance, Performance, 22 March 2012
Lynda Mulvin, 'Gothic Nuremburg', Celebrating Pugin Lecture Series, Irish Architectural Archive, 13 March 2012
Kathleen James-Chakraborty, 'The Great American Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright', National Gallery of Ireland, 8 March 2012
Pat Cooke, 'Do Irish museums have a great future behind them?', Irish Museums Association Annual Conference, 25 February 2012
John Loughman, 'The Cuyp Workshop and the Construction of Social Identity in Dordrecht', College Arts Association 2012 Annual Conference, 23 February 2012
Emily Mark-FitzGerald, ‘Remembering the Irish Famine: Commemorating the Famine Graveyard and Workhouse, 1990-2011’ for session 'Where the Bodies Lie: Landscapes of Mourning, Memory, and Concealment', College Arts Association 2012 Annual Conference (Los Angeles), 22 February 2012
Kathleen James-Chakraborty, 'Marg: European Architecture as seen from an independent India', Colonial, Imperial or Corporate Architecture. Architectural diversity or uniformity across time, agency or geography, School of Architecture, ESALA, University of Edinburgh, 10 February 2012
Roisin Kennedy, 'John Butler Yeats - Portrait of Jack B. Yeats', National Gallery of Ireland, study morning on Literary and Historical Portraits, 28 January 2012
Conor Lucey, ‘Species of (Georgian domestic) spaces’, Early Modern History Research Seminar, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, 23 January 2012
Carla Briggs, 'Romantic Landscape and the Influence of Claude on Turner', National Gallery of Ireland, 3 January 2012

Recent & Forthcoming Publications

Books

Christine Casey & Conor Lucey (eds), Decorative plasterwork in Ireland and Europe: ornament & the early modern interior, Four Courts Press, 2012
Lynda Mulvin (ed.), The Fusion of Neo-Classical Principles, Dublin: Wordwell, 2012
Kathleen James Chakraborty, Anne Fuchs & Linda Shortt (eds), Debating German Cultural Identity since 1989, Camden House Press, 2011
Kathleen James Chakraborty & Sabine Stümper-Krobb (eds), Crossing Borders: Space Beyond Discipline, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011
Paula Murphy, Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture, Native Genius Reaffirmed, London: Yale University Press (April, 2010)

Articles, book chapters & catalogue essays

Kathleen James Chakraborty, 'Between Revolution and Reform: The Bauhaus in Context, 1919-23',” in Barbican Art Gallery, Bauhaus: Art as Life, König Books, 2012.
Roisin Kennedy, Review of The Story of Irish Museums 1790-2000 by M. Bourke [Cork University Press, 2011], Burlington Magazine, CLIV, March 2012
Lynda Mulvin, 'Charles Robert Cockerell, Francis Johnston and the dissemination of Neo-Classical principles', in L. Mulvin (ed.) The Fusion of Neo-Classical Principles, Dublin: Wordwell, 2012.
Kathleen James Chakraborty, 'Neo-Classical commodities: from Coade Stone to the fall of the Wall and beyond', in L. Mulvin (ed.) The Fusion of Neo-Classical Principles, Dublin: Wordwell, 2012.
Conor Lucey, ‘Pattern books and pedagogies: neo-classicism and the Dublin artisan’ in L. Mulvin (ed.) The Fusion of Neo-Classical Principles, Dublin: Wordwell, 2012.
Lynda Mulvin [with V. Mulvin and J. Foley],'Finn’s Hotel, historic painted sign, Dublin Dental School and Hospital: a case study', in A. Rauch, L. O’Connor and Z. Reid (eds. ) Irish Professional Conservators and Restorers Association Conservation Activities in Ireland II Papers from the 2010 conference, Wordwell, 2011.
Conor Lucey, ‘Keeping up appearances: redecorating the domestic interior in late eighteenth-century Dublin’, Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy, 111C, 2011.
Nicola Figgis, Preface to Rachel Finnegan (ed.) Letters from Abroad: The Grand Tour Correspondence of Richard Pococke & Jeremiah Milles, vol. 1, Pococke Press, Piltown, 2011.
Emily Mark-FitzGerald, "Parity of Form", Irish Arts Review, summer [June-August] 2011
Kathleen James Chakraborty, "Louis Kahn's Monumentality: Theory and Practice", in Carsten Ruhl, ed., Mythos Monument: Urban Strategien in Architektur und Kunst seit 1945, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2011.
Philip Cottrell, "More like himself that he is in reality", Venezia Cinquecento, anno XX, n. 39.
Pat Cooke, "The economics of identity: Heritage as a Cultural Resource in Ireland, 1922–89", Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, vol. 2.2, 2010.
Paula Murphy, "Gabriel Hayes (1909-78), an Irish Sculptor", Irish Women Artists, 1800–2009: familiar but unknown, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010.
Carla Briggs, "Margaret Clarke's history paintings", Irish Women Artists, 1800–2009: familiar but unknown, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010.
Roisin Kennedy, "Scapegoating women artists", Irish Women Artists, 1800–2009: familiar but unknown, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010.
Lynda Mulvin, "Charlemont's Neighbours, Parnell Square, Dublin town houses" in The eighteenth-century Dublin townhouse, ed. C. Casey, Four Courts Press, 2010.
Conor Lucey, "Classicism or commerce? The townhouse interior as commodity" in The eighteenth-century Dublin townhouse, ed. C. Casey, Four Courts Press, 2010.
Emily Mark-FitzGerald, "Towards a Famine Art History: Invention, Reception, and Repetition from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth", in Ireland’s Great Hunger, vol. 2: Relief, Representation, and Remembrance, ed. D. Valone, QU Press, 2010.
John Loughman, "'Delicacies that enrapture the eye and the mind'. Still-life painting in the Netherlands of the seventeenth century," in exhib. cat. In the Presence of Things: Four Centuries of European Still-life Painting, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, 2010.