THIS is a "group" sculpture set up in the public park in Merrion Square as part of Dublin Corporation's Temporary Public Art Project. The subtitle is Homage to Matisse and the work is, in fact, a re-creation in three-dimensional terms of his big canvas La Danse. This seminal picture has played a role in 20th-century art comparable to Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps, to which it is close in spirit and subject - and in time.
As those who remember it will know, Matisse's master-work shows a handful of male and female nudes whirling and cape ring in a sort of unending round dance, which seems to possess them like the corybantic dancers of the ancient world. Alice Pittaluga, who is Brazilian by origin, has translated this concept fairly closely into lifesize figures, painted quite realistically but not over-detailed, and has preserved above all the sense of rapt, writhing, continuous movement which is the essence of the original.
Since the sculpture is (very naturally and even unavoidably) roped off, I could not quite make out the material used, but it appears to be some kind of, plaster or synthetic resin painted over. As an outdoor grouping it is highly effective, and the warm colours of the whirling dancers contrasts vividly with the green lawn on which it is set but, perhaps inevitably, some of the mystery and mythic quality of the painting has been lost along the way.
