The Bad Art Gallery's show of work turned down for the RHA Annual Exhibition may not make the same impact as the French Salon des Refusés, but it is a valid exercise in cultural democracy, writes AIDAN DUNNE
THROUGHOUT THE 1850s, the French Royal Academy ruthlessly excluded artists it didn’t approve of from its annual exhibitions in the Salon d’Apollon. So many painters cried foul that, in 1863, Napoleon III set up an exhibition of the work rejected by the academy. A list of the exhibitors at the Salon des Refusés, as it became known, is virtually a roll-call of the French Impressionists, who ultimately became much more famous than their academic counterparts.
But success wasn’t instant. For the most part, the work in the Salon des Refusés was greeted with ridicule by the public, and a decade passed before the Impressionists became truly established as an organised group.
Four years ago, Denise and Deborah Donnelly, who run the lively, populist Bad Art Gallery in Dublin's Francis Street, followed in Napoleon's footsteps and inaugurated Ireland's own Salon des Refusés, The RHA Unselected Show. This year's exhibition amounts to their most concerted effort yet, perhaps because potential participants feel progressively more comfortable about being classed among the RHA rejects. There's no question but that perfectly competent work is excluded from the RHA's Annual Exhibitions, and you can see at least some of it in the Bad Art Gallery.
There’s always been grumbling about the vagaries of the RHA’s selection procedures. It’s true that academicians decide who gets to exhibit, but the academy is a much broader, more liberal institution these days than it used to be. Members exhibit by right, and many artists who are not members are invited to show work. The work of those who take their chances with the open-submission process is presented to a substantial panel. Each member of the panel has a vote, and the majority rules. But there are also practical constraints.
The RHA Annual Exhibition (this year’s is open from May 26th) is a huge exhibition. Even with all the space available in Ely Place, it’s usually bulging at the seams, so no matter how inclusive the academy might strive to be, not everything will make it. Each year some decisions seem unfair, some exclusions inexplicable on the grounds of quality. But it’s not the case that, as with the French Academy in the 19th century, unorthodox work is systematically excluded because it doesn’t conform to a house style.
A lot of what’s on view at the Bad Art Gallery would look completely at home in Ely Place and, indeed, some of the artists have featured in past RHA shows and may even be represented in the one pending.
Take an established painter, such as Lucy Doyle, who makes cheerful, decorative works with a great feeling for pattern and colour. Hard to imagine why she was turned down, if not purely for reasons of space.
A sizeable proportion of her co-exhibitors also fall into this category. Christopher Banahan’s figurative work subtly explores memory and childhood, while Patrick Horan was included in the last RHA annual show. Horan’s close-up views of figures are painted with real delicacy and expertise. Jonathan Dalton comes across as a figurative painter with pronounced dramatic flair.
Hugh Frazer has a feeling for abstract patterns in his crisply organised, carefully lit urban landscapes. Gary Deran and Triona Sweeney are also good on the city, and Mark Costello’s coastal scene is strong. Barbara Dempsey’s striking study of a pregnant woman, a tired figure in the light of late afternoon, recalls Edward Hopper.
Portrait studies by Jenny Cleary, Deirdre McCarthy, John McCann and several more are impressive. Mantas Poderys won a Texaco award. His academically accomplished self-portrait is a homage to Lucian Freud.
Of course, not everything is good, not everything lives up to the artists’ often ambitious aims. But that’s usually the case in the RHA’s own exhibitions anyway.
Whimsy has a role to play in such a broadly based show, and in the Bad Art Gallery in general. Mia Funk's The Audienceis an assembly of Irish literary greats seated in the stalls, making up a daunting audience for any performer. Tony Gunning's Recessionistas brandish bags from cut-price supermarkets. Apart from traditional media and genres, some strong photography is included, by Andreas Sholz and others.
It's safe to say that the RHA Unselected Showdoes not incorporate a group of innovative artists who will one day be recognised as the French Impressionists of our time. When the 1863 Salon des Refusés took place, there was literally no alternative to the academy's annual salon. Now the art world is much more pluralistic and fragmented. There are many different outlets for different kinds of art, and the RHA is but one strand among several.
Still, by allowing us to see what the academy opted to exclude, the Bad Art Gallery show is a worthwhile exercise in cultural democracy. It’s well worth seeing, either in advance of the official RHA exhibition or, better still, in conjunction with it.
The
RHA Unselected Show 2009
is at the Bad Art Gallery, 79 Francis Street, Dublin 8, until June 4
