michael kane: life story

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Irish Arts Review MICHAEL KANE: LIFE STORY Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 28, No. 2 (SUMMER (JUNE - AUGUST 2011)), p. 142 Published by: Irish Arts Review Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41202747 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 06:06 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Irish Arts Review (2002-). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.101 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 06:06:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: MICHAEL KANE: LIFE STORY

Irish Arts Review

MICHAEL KANE: LIFE STORYIrish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 28, No. 2 (SUMMER (JUNE - AUGUST 2011)), p. 142Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41202747 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 06:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Irish Arts Review(2002-).

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.101 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 06:06:06 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: MICHAEL KANE: LIFE STORY

SUMMER 201 1

CATALOGUES

DEARC: CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF THE RDS TAYLOR ART AWARD ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. DUBLIN. 2011 PP. 80 50 COL ILLS P/B €15.00 ISBN: 978-0-86027-057

Since being founded in 1860, there have been over 300 prize-winners of this art award of whom twenty- five mainly well- known artists have been selected for this exhibition, each represented by a page containing one small and one large colour illustration. This is a very useful reference

catalogue as it lists all of the Taylor Art Award winners as well as the judges for each award. There are short essays on

Taylor himself and on the early history of the 'Visual Arts and the RDS' Pleasingly, everything is cross-referenced, even the illustrations. Worth buying.

EGO: ROBERT BALLAGH WEXFORD ARTS CENTRE. WEXFORD. 2010 UNPAGINATED 16 COL ILLS H/B €15.00 NO ISBN

This is a very pretty catalogue. The black cloth-covered front board is illuminated by gold-leaf text (the title in Irish script) with a pasted inset illustration, as if a leaf from a medieval missal. The sixteen illustrations, comprising studies and finished paintings,

naked, unaccommodated man'?). The other

essay is by Ballagh himself and, pace Hockney, is typically thoughtful, illuminating and, to a degree, misdirecting. There is no apparatus whatsoever: no list of illustrations, not even pagination or an ISBN number. That having been said, this

actually is an important catalogue. It

conjures up (though it doesn't address) all kinds of questions about the relationship of self-portraiture to 'photographic' surface; about 'truth', integrity and narcissism; and about the relationship between portraiture and (in the widest sense of the term) propaganda.

PHILIP TAAFFE: ANIMA MUNDI IMMA. DUBLIN. 2011 PP. 128 OVER 80 COL ILLS H/B €30.00 ISBN: 978-1907020605

Born in New York in 1955 Philip Taaffe, at least according to IMMA, is 'one of the most significant painters working in America today'. Again, according to IMMA, the current exhibition consists of

thirty 'abstract' paintings from the past ten

years, though as the majority of these works have insistent figurative references it's difficult to see why they are classed as

are immaculately rendered and the chalk- surfaced heavy white paper is a delight to handle. There are two essays, one by Declan Kiberd which is readable but doesn't really engage in any depth with

Ballagh s self-portraiture (What about the

relationship to photography? Are these works really 'autobiographical' in any but the most obvious sense? Does the

theatricality of the seeming self-exposure really equate with the revelation of 'the

abstract. Many of his works riff off artists as diverse as Bridget Riley or Ellsworth

Kelly and those presented in the exhibition and catalogue are bright, colourful and decorative: exuberantly playful. There are two essays (by Enrique Juncosa and Colm

Tóibín) which are great at quoting poetry and making claims: fine pieces of writing but rather far away from the work to my mind. However there is an excellent and

highly illuminating interview with the

artist by David

Brody, the biography and bibliography are

exemplary and the

plates are excellent. If you like this kind of artist, then this catalogue is worth buying.

ANOTHER DIMENSION: SEACOURT PRINT WORKSHOP F E MCWILLIAM GALLERY. BANBRIDGE. 2011 PP. 50 39 COL ILLS P/B £3.00 NO ISBN

This is the catalogue to a really interesting show in which thirty-nine printmakers were commissioned to produce three- dimensional works. The exhibition, although badly hung, was a delight: inventive, witty and often stylish. The

catalogue, in terms of page size, is really too small to do justice to the remarkably varied range of sculptural works. The illustrations are rather variable but there is a useful if short introduction by Robert Peters (Seacourt's Director), a glossary of

printmaking terms, and an artist's statement opposite each illustration. These are organized alphabetically which is just as well as there is no list of illustrations; nor indeed are there any cvs.

MICHAEL KANE: LIFE STORY GANDON EDITIONS. KINSALE. 2011 PP. 112 OVER 100 COL ILLS H/B €25.00 ISBN: 978 0948037 856

This is, effortlessly, one of publisher John O'Regan's best publications, a coffee-table book in which pride of place is given to the excellent large-format illustrations. There are over 100, in Kane's typically allusive and

expressionist style, all of which use the text and images of newsprint pages, mainly from the Irish Times magazine, as a baseline

(What does this say about the Irish Times?!). There is a one-page afterword by Elizabeth Hatz and an even shorter biographical note on Kane, neither of which really matter as this is a kind of testament to the work

produced for the 2010 Ev+a - not unlike a

graphic novel. Worth buying. ■ BRIAN McAVERA is an art critic.

U2 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SUMMER 2011

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.101 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 06:06:06 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions