The last of that Tuesday sunshine bounced off the warm sand at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, as guests at Joseph Beuys exhibition gathered for the opening of "Multiples". Beuys, who exhibited at Kilmainham in 1991, has since his death become a legend in the world of modern art.
This exhibition, which has been drawn from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, brings together some of his most influential works and guests at the opening were treated to all sorts of material including prints, postcards and videos. Found chatting in one of the small rooms was Professor Richard Demarco, a personal friend of Beuys and an expert on his philosophies and beliefs who is shortly going to Malta to plant 7,000 oak trees, carrying on a tradition started by Beuys himself. Enjoying the chat were artist Geert Bisschop from Belgium, who had spontaneously jumped on a plane earlier that morning for the opening, and IMMA director Declan McGonagle. A number of others involved in the exhibition included Joan Rothfuss, curator of the exhibition and critic Dorothy Walker whose lecture on Beuys in Ireland will take place tomorrow.
Also present from the art world were artist Maria Simonds, Yoshiko Kanai who is resident in the IMMA studio, Janet Mullarney who recently exhibited at the Hugh Lane and Tomoko Sato, exhibition organiser from London's Barbican Gallery.
Later that evening at the Gate theatre, there was a ridiculous amount of name dropping - but thankfully not by the audience. Casimir in Brien Friel's play, Aristocrats, comes up with mouthfuls of friends such as Balzac, Yeats and O'Casey allowing Mark Lambert who plays him to steal the show. Directed by Ben Barnes, who recently returned from directing a bi-lingual Waiting for Godot in Montreal, Aristocrats is heading off to the Lincoln Center Festival in New York later this summer. Barnes was present at the opening as was deputy director Karl Wallace, enjoying his first engagement at the Gate.