Visual Art
Aidan Dunne
1 Monet, Renoir and the Impressionist Landscape, National Gallery of Ireland. The subject of a considerable advertising and promotion campaign, this blockbuster features works by old reliables including Corot, Signac, Gauguin, van Gogh and Cezanne as well as the headlined Monet and Renoir, all drawn from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It launches the NGI's new Millennium Wing, fronting on to Clare Street, and you have to pay €10 (there are various concessions) to get in. Advance booking at www.ticketmaster.ie is encouraged. (January 22nd to April 14th)
2 Stanley Spencer, Ulster Museum, Belfast. One of the great visionary eccentrics in a culture that prides itself on its visionary eccentrics, the English painter Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) had a unique sensibility that combined an unorthodox personal life with a singular religious faith. His paintings, including realistic portraits and everyday subjects as well as striking religious allegories, have a strange, otherworldly quality. (January)
3 Patrick Scott Retrospective, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Born in Cork in 1921, and one of the major Irish artists of the 20th century, Patrick Scott's work encompasses the fields of art and design. He also worked as an architect before turning full-time to painting around 1960. Influenced by Japanese design principles, his pared-down pictorial language has centred on the sphere for most of his career and among his hallmarks are his use of gold leaf, unprimed linen and refined elegance of form. He is also celebrated as a tapestry designer. (February)
4 Ann Hamilton, IMMA, Dublin. The Ohio-born American artist Ann Hamilton specialises in big, elaborate installations that engage at a sensory level, inviting us to respond emotionally and intuitively to spaces, events and sometimes films that eschew any readily identifiable meaning. There is often a lushness to her works deriving from her audacious use of materials. As well as a significant installation, this show will include some of her earlier photography and video work. (March)
5 Shane Cullen: The Agreement, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. Shane Cullen's best-known work to date is his monumental, hand-painted transcriptions of the dispatches written by the hunger strikers. This exhibition will feature a major new project: the Belfast Agreement, all 11,500 words of it, carved into a set of panels - but not by the artist's hand. This time it's being mechanically done. (April)
6 American Beauty: Paintings and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts 1770-1920, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Cheekily titled exposition of more than a century's worth of American fine art, always made with one eye on Europe, tracking the development of heroic colonial painting towards an eventual engagement with the more prosaic realities of contemporary urban life prior to the influx of immigrant European artists who consolidated the rise of modernism in the US. (June)
7 Thomas Ruff, IMMA. Photography is big, and Ruff makes big photographs. He is one of a number of German photographers influenced by the Bernd and Hilla Becher objective-topographic approach and is best known for his huge, slightly intimidating portrait heads and his extraordinarily ordinary contemporary architectural interiors and exteriors, often achieved with computer manipulation. His more recent satirical political posters are ominously heavy-handed in their humour. (August)
8 Jules Breton 1827-1906, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. It's revisionist time. Note those dates. Note that Breton doesn't feature in the Impressionist Landscape earlier in the year. Too right, for this is a major survey of the output of a painter who never succumbed to the shock of the new but preferred to make polished depictions of peasants at work - including the NGI's own The Gleaners - which won him the admiration of Van Gogh, among others. He was one of the plein air painters who influenced the Irish and Scandinavian artists who went to study in France and Belgium. (September)
9 John Shinnors, Limerick City Art Gallery. Limerick-born John Shinnors has become one of the most sought-after artists in the country, his work often sold by the time it gets onto the gallery walls. Wary of colour and fond of strongly contrasting patterns of black and white, he translates the world around him into abstracted but usually decipherable paintings. This will be a major show of new work, occupying the entire ground floor of Limerick City Gallery. (October)
10 Willie Doherty, IMMA, Dublin. The long-awaited retrospective of the work of one of the most important Irish artists of the last few decades. Born in Derry, Willie Doherty's work was catalysed by his critical apprehension of the Troubles. Since the 1970s, usually based in the city and landscapes of Derry, he has made consistently analytical works exploring perceptions of conflict, identity, place and memory. From early photo-text pieces he has moved on to sophisticated photographic, video and film installations. (November)
Rock
Tony Clayton Lea
1 Gigs (indoor): The new year starts with a bang with Irish dates from the brick-like Henry Rollins. He and his granite-hard band play Ulster Hall, Belfast (January 10th), Vicar Street, Dublin (January 11th), and Savoy Theatre, Cork (January 12th). Then it gets very quiet for the first bona fide could-be-brilliant concert of 2002 when Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and John Prine strum together in a gig billed as the Concert For A Landmine Free World (The Point, January 14th). The first major pop concert of 2002 is the Childline benefit (The Point, January 27th) headlined by Westlife and S Club 7, with a host of fluffy pop stars taking up the slack - Blue, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Bellefire, Doves, Fifth Avenue and Samantha Mumba's younger brother, Omero Mumba. On the same night at Dublin's Ambassador is the anti-pop NME's Carling Awards Tour 2002 featuring Andrew WK, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lost Prophets and The Coral. Brian Wilson, fractured Beach Boys genius, brings a 10-piece band over to Ireland with him to perform many BB hits, including material from the legendary Pet Sounds album (The Point, February 1st). It's not all good, though - Shaggy finally makes it to The Point on February 15th.
The remainder of the major concerts announced to date are as follows: Ian Brown, March 17th (Olympia theatre), The Strokes, March 31st (Olympia theatre), Westlife, April 19th to 23rd and June 3rd and 4th (Belfast Odyssey), Lambchop, May 17th (Olympia theatre), Westlife, June 6th to 18th (The Point), Andy Williams, June 19th (The Point), Destiny's Child, June 21st (Belfast Odyssey), Ronan Keating, June 23rd (The Point) and June 25th (Belfast Odyssey), Roger Waters, June 24th (The Point).
2 Gigs (outdoor): The first (and, at the time of going to press, only) major outdoor rock/pop concert announced is Rod Stewart, Lansdowne Road, June 20th. There is no definite word on headline acts for other open-air concerts, but don't be surprised if Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Oasis and The Rolling Stones turn up in their finery at one point or another.
Weekend festivals, meanwhile, look set to continue with the Carlsberg Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots, Heineken Green Energy (both May bank holiday) and the third year of Witnness (August bank holiday). Homelands will be in there, too - weekend to be confirmed. Slane Castle? My money's on Madonna.
3 Trends: If anything, the trend is for further manufactured pop music to become even more successful - in Ireland, at least.
As you read, the members of RT╔'s Popstars band have been chosen and are in the thick of rehearsing furiously for their unveiling in February. Already signed by BMG, in the short term success is theirs on a plate. Also in the pop field, keep an ear or two out for Omero Mumba - he's only 12, is signed to a major label and releases his dΘbut album before the summer. Think Lil Bow Wow crossed with Jackson 5-era Michael. Like, er, yowsa!
4 Albums: So far confirmed for release in the first half of next year are albums by the following: Altan, Luka Bloom, David Bowie, Marc Carroll, Chemical Brothers, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Marianne Faithfull, Roland Gift, David Gray, Gemma Hayes, Ronan Keating, Korn, Lambchop, Courtney Love, Nine Inch Nails, Oasis, Pet Shop Boys, The Prodigy, Public Enemy, John Spillane, Suede, Tom Waits, Alanis Morissette and James Taylor. I wouldn't rule out a new album from U2, either.
They're all pop stars of one sort or another, though, so a wobbly could be thrown and schedules put back by months. Typical!
5 Tips for 2002: Of course, you never know what's going to happen (says cagey music journalist, quickly applying the standard get-out clause), but it's likely you'll be hearing from one or more of the following over the next 12 months (as well as the aforementioned as-yet-untitled Popstars project and Omero Mumba): Subrosa (solid rock band signed to Warner Music); Carly Hennessy (mature soul from Dublin tipped as a genuine contender in the US); Marc Carroll (former Puppy Love Bomb/Hormones lead singer who releases his superb solo debut album in April); Gemma Hayes (the Tipperary woman who has released excellent EPs to date and whose debut album is eagerly anticipated; and Pony Club (former Fixed Stars' Mark Cullen's new band, who recently signed to Setanta).
6 Record labels: Increasingly, Irish bands are veering away from the advance swag money of major label record deals and developing or operating their own. Cutting out the middle men and women, the artists are finally seeing a quick return on their initial investment. Two Irish record labels currently promoting semi-regular releases of high quality and lo-fidelity are Catchy GoGo (NPB, El Diablo) and Volta Sounds, which releases the dΘbut album of Goodtime John early next year. Also, keep an eye out for the US offshoot of Volta Sounds - Volta Beats - which should be releasing eminently funky material.
7 Awards Last year the inaugural Meteor Music Awards took place, and while there's no definite word it will return, it's certain that the Hot Press Music Awards (an adjunct of sorts to the Meteor Awards last year) will take place in Belfast on April 25th. A more intriguing prospect is a proposed National Music Prize, which intends to honour and promote creative and innovative new Irish music across all genres and to honour artists in two categories: albums and singles that have achieved sales of less than platinum status (15,000). Based along the lines of the UK's Mercury Prize, this could be an important one to watch for.
Dance
Michael Seaver
1 The worst kept secret in Irish dance has been officially confirmed and - surprise surprise - the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will perform at the "first" International Dance Festival Ireland to be held from May 8th to 26th. The obsession with being "first" still affects the Irish dance world and the full programme for the festival will be released in March (although the rumours have started already). It will be a hectic fortnight but Merce Cunningham will certainly be the main draw, not just for dancers but anyone "in the know".
2 The Belfast Festival was the first to bring the Merce Cunningham to Ireland a few years ago and the Waterfront Hall will steal the International Dance Festival Ireland's thunder again, when it hosts Earthquake, another "first" festival of international dance in March, beating its rival by two months.Funded through the UK National Lottery, it has a strong community ethos, with a range of outreach events as well as performances by companies such as Scottish Ballet.
3 Getting your dance on the big screen is always a good way of broadening your audience base. CoiscΘim's Hit and Run joins Daghdha's 1994 Territorial Claims in the slim list of Irish dance films. Choreographed by David Bolger and directed by John Comiskey, it will premiΦre in May.
4 Gladly, the state of dance publishing in Ireland is a lot healthier and 2002 will see several new dance books. A collection of Diana Theodores's writings as dance critic of the Sunday Tribune is planned by the new dance-publishing house Kinetic Reflex (and I must declare a personal interest in that one). This, hopefully, will be joined by another book by movement artist Kalichi, while work continues on the Institute for Choreography and Dance's titles: Conversations with Choreographers, also by Diana Theodores, and a new Dance Yearbook for 2003. Internationally, Swedish anthropologist Helena Wulff is continuing research on her book on Irish theatre dance.
5 After years of scrimping, Irish dance companies are leaving the rental sector and buying their first homes. Keeping up with Dance Theatre of Ireland and CoiscΘim, Daghdha will begin building a new studio on the banks of the Shannon in 2002. Elsewhere, Rex Levitates will be take up a short residency at ICD in April and rumour has it that Fabulous Beast might be more longer-term tenants at Shawbrook in Co Longford.
6 Continuing Ireland's love affair with post-modern dancers, Deborah Hay will be at ICD early in the new year. Like Steve Paxton and Yvonne Rainer, who were in Limerick recently, Hay is a founding member of the Judson Church movement and is also a former dancer with Merce Cunningham.
7 While some might be uncomfortable with the ethics of competitions, audiences love them. Our own National Dance Competition, organised by the LD dance trust at Shawbrook, begins on March 26th. The finale, with a prize of €2,500 for the Dancer of the Year, is on March 28th at Backstage Theatre in Longford.
8 Getting away from the cut-throat atmosphere of competition to the safe environs of workshops, you can attend the Association of Professional Dancers in Ireland's cross-arts weekend workshop in singing technique for singers and non-singers with Jasmin Martorell (January 18th to 20th in Dublin). In Cork at the ICD, choreographer Lily Kiara and lighting designer Ellen Knops will facilitate a workshop - Lights and Dance in performance: autonomy and integration - from February 11th to 22nd.
9 Some newish choreographers to watch out for this year are Rebecca Walters and her XYZ company, who wowed us at the Dublin Fringe this year. Finola Cronin plans a foray into Tanztheater with a new work; Diana Richardson, who charmed the socks off us at Dance Fest in 1997, plans to be back with a new show at Christmas; and the young Flock Dance Company in Galway will premiΦre Elemental II at the Black Box on March 1st.
10 Finally there are the usual suspects. Among the highlights are CoiscΘim's When Once is Never Enough and The Rite of Spring in January and February; Spinstren by half/Angel in the Granary Theatre in Cork on March 30th; Cork City Ballet's annual season at the Cork Opera House on March 12th and 13th; Ballet Ireland's The Sleeping Beauty in the spring; Rex Levitates with The Salt Cycle in Cork in spring and ongoing work on These Two People in Silence; Delicious Death, the third part of Cathy O'Kennedy's trilogy for Fluxusdance in June; Ten Thousand Steps around Temple Bar with Daghdha in May; more dabblings in performance and technology from Cindy Cummings and adventures in motion capture systems from Dance Theatre of Ireland; and new works planned by Fabulous Beast, New Balance Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Ireland and Irish Modern Dance Theatre.
Opera
Arminta Wallace
1 Lord of the Rings, nothing: come August, it'll be time to roll over, Tolkien, and let the real Ringmeister take over. Wagner's complete Ring cycle will be given an outing at the University of Limerick Concert Hall, with Opera Ireland's Dieter Kaegi joining forces with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and a series of smashing casts - Gerard O'Connor, Colette McGahon, Robin Leggate, Cara O'Sullivan, Suzanne Murphy, Franzita Whelan, they're all in there - for a single concert performance each of Das Rheingold, Die Walkⁿre, Siegfried and G÷tterdΣmmerung before the whole shebang shifts to Birmingham for a repeat gig at the Symphony Hall. There'll also be a suitably mammoth conference, Wagner and Wagnerism: Contexts - Connections - Controversies, with visiting experts, lectures, arguments, recitals and films. Check out www.wagnerring2002ireuk.com.
2 Czech opera is always a good idea, and Opera Theatre Company plans to treat us to a whole year of it, starting with Louise Walsh and Joe Corbett in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen, which will go on a nationwide tour in February and March. That'll be followed by Smetana's folk opera The Kiss in April/May, and a piece called The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann, which was written in the Terezin concentration camp in 1944.
3 I wouldn't normally include boring old Carmen in a highlights list, but when it's being directed by Calixto Bieito, whose Barbaric Comedies stirred up such controversy at the Abbey a while back, it's likely to be anything but boring. Opera Ireland's production, which is coming in from Barcelona, will be at the Gaiety for seven performances from April 19th.
4 Gala recitals, provided they're not amplified, provide a welcome opportunity to get up close and personal with the biggest stars on the international scene. One of the biggest around - in every sense - is the Italian baritone Paolo Gavanelli, whose silken-voiced performances in Falstaff and Rigoletto at Covent Garden last year earned him fistfuls of rave reviews. You can hear him doing his Verdi thing with the RT╔ Concert Orchestra conducted by Colman Pearce at the National Concert Hall, Dublin on March 1st and at the City Hall, Cork on March 3rd.
5 Manon Lescaut is many people's favourite, but what's this? Manon Lescaut - by Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber? If it's rare and neglected, it must be Wexford, and the Fifty-First Festival teams Auber's French-language version of the torrid tale of Manon and her chevalier with Saverio Mercadante's melodrama Il Giuramento and a comic opera by Bohuslav Martinu, Mirandolina.
Film
Michael Dwyer
Selecting just 10 movies from the 250-plus to be released here in 2002 proved an invidious task. The year is top-heavy with big-budget sequels led by the release of Star Wars Episode 2: The Attack of the Clones on May 16th, and a summer line-up that offers Stuart Little 2, Men in Black 2, Blade 2, and the third Austin Powers picture, Goldmember. And at year's end we can expect Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, along with Star Trek: Nemesis and the as-yet-untitled 20th James Bond movie, with Pierce Brosnan back again as 007. Brosnan will also be seen in the recently completed Irish movie, Evelyn, while Samanatha Mumba makes her film dΘbut in The Time Machine (due March 15th), Liam Neeson teams up with Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker (summer) and Gabriel Byrne stars in David Cronenberg's Spider (winter). But the ubiqitous Irish actor on cinema screens next year will be Colin Farrell in Joel Schumacher's One Hour Photo, opposite Bruce Willis in Hart's War, and co-starring with Tom Cruise in Minority Report (see Weekend 5). In addition to the new Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan films listed below, Irish directors with new work on the way include Damien O'Donnell (Heartlands), Thaddeus O'Sullivan (The Heart of Me), Johnny Gogan (Mapmaker) and Geraldine Creed (Chaos). And there will be the Paul Greengrass film, Bloody Sunday (January) and Peter Mullan's Magdalene laundries drama, Magdalene (November), along with two epic adventures shot in Ireland, Monte Cristo (April) and Reign of Fire (July).
Here's 10 for 2002 (in alphabetical order)
1 About a Boy Nick Hornby's best-selling novel comes to the screen with Hugh Grant cast as the 36-year-old north Londoner who seeks out single mothers in the belief that they're more desperate for a man - and easier to leave. Complications ensue when he gets involved with a widow (Toni Collette) and emotionally attached to her 12-year-old son. Directed by Chris and Paul Weitz (May 24th).
2 Double Down The latest Neil Jordan movie stars Nick Nolte as an American gambler and thief who has ended up in the south of France, down on his luck and out of money, and with a heroin habit to feed, decides on one last job - to rob a Monte Carlo casino and its vault of priceless paintings. The international cast includes Tcheky Karyo, Nutsa Kukhiandize, Emir Kusturica, Said Taghmaoui and Ralph Fiennes (November).
3 East of Harlem Jim Sheridan's loosely autobiographical new film is based on his experiences with his wife and young family in 1980s New York and incorporates a fictional story of them coming to terms with the death of their young son in Ireland. Fast-rising British actors Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton play the leading roles (autumn/winter).
4 Gangs of New York Martin Scorsese's long-awaited picture of rival Irish and Italian gangs in New York involves an even longer wait than expected. However, Scorsese's epic long-planned project should be well worth the wait. The cast, for starters, is formidable, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Pete Postlethwaite, John C Reilly, Henry Thomas and Liam Carney (autumn).