National Gallery of Ireland unveils 2020 shows on Mondrian, Shaw and equestrianism

The National Gallery of Ireland has announced its programme for 2020, which will include Irish Horse, a major exhibition celebrating the central role of the horse in Irish life, history and culture.

The exhibition, opening on April 25th, will feature works dating from the 18th century to the present day, with paintings and photographs by a number of artists celebrated for their affinity with horses and equestrian life. Jack B Yeats heads the list, together with Basil Blackshaw, William Orpen, Alfred James Munnings and Kim Haughton.

The gallery's main autumn exhibition will be the first Irish show devoted to the work of the pioneering and hugely influential Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian, whose visual language of primary colours and straight lines seeped into numerous areas of 20th-century art and design. The exhibition promises to cover Mondrian's entire career, from early experimentation to iconic masterpieces.

A special exhibition, Murillo: The Prodigal Son Restored (from February 29th), marks the culmination of a lengthy conservation and research project on the works of the Spanish Golden Age painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682).

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Drawn from Nature (from March 7th) spans almost 300 years of Irish botanical art.

George Bernard Shaw was one of the National Gallery's greatest benefactors, not least via the bountiful Shaw Bequest, and an archive exhibition (from May 23rd), including postcards, letters and sculpture, pays tribute to his long relationship with the institution.