LE MONDE may feel that the Irish artists currently exhibiting bin Paris under L'Imaginaire Irlandais banner are offering work that is "liberated and rich" but not everyone in Paris sees the work in such a positive light.
A glance through the comments book in the echoing foyer of the museum of the Ecole National Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris offers some alternative views from members of the French public.
"How could the Ecole present these mediocrities as a contribution to L'Imaginaire Irlandais?" wrote one clearly dissatisfied customer. "Very, very, very bad... this is international academicism", another commented more pointedly, while one extremely sensitive visitor felt that the whole thing was "annoying" and wondered "aren't there other Irish artists'?"
Not all the comments, of course, were critical but the carpers did seem by far the more impassioned. The less excruciating of these included the word "Nul". Some writers, however, were more ambitiously analytical. "Very avant garde, far from the creations of the Celtic spirit, but it would remind you of James Joyce, the precursor of modern letters."
Perhaps the most laconically damning of comments came from the understated art lover who wrote "Pas terrible. Dommage pour L'Irlande."
