AIB donates art works to State

A total of 39 paintings including works from well-known artists such as Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry and Sir William Orpen, have been donated to the State by AIB.

Twelve of the artworks are being transferred to the State immediately with a further 27 to be given over the next two years.

The paintings are form part of the permanent collection of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork An exhibition featuring some of the works being donated will be opened by Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan at the gallery early next month.

Mr Deenihan welcomed AIB's donation and said the bank, which is 99.8 per cent State owned, had also agreed to make an additional 1,000 pieces from its collection available for loan to publicly funded galleries.

"The AIB Collection is the pinnacle of “wise and knowledgeable connoisseurship” and as such is a valuable addition to the National Collection," he said."

The collection includes a number of highly-regarded works including A Race in Hy Brazil by Jack B Yeats and Red Rocks at Pont Aven by Roderic O'Conor.

The works being donated all date from either the late nineteenth century or the twentieth century and also include works by artists such as Gerard Dillon, William Leech, John Luke, Maurice MacGonigal Walter Osborne, Sean Keating, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Collins and William Crozier.

AIB's corporate art collection consists of over 3,000 works of art and is estimated to be worth between €10 million and €12 million.

“The AIB art collection is more than a group of paintings and sculptures originally intended to enhance bank premises. From the beginning a view and a vision of Irish life and culture that extended beyond financial matters was evident in the bank’s ethos,” said the gallery's chairman John R Bowen.

Crawford director Peter Murray said that the donation marked an important step in the development of the Crawford Art Gallery as a national cultural institution, and as one of the foremost museums of Irish art.

Artsworks to be donated:

Jack B. Yeats - A Race in Hy Brazil

Séan Keating - On the Run - War of Independence

William Scott - Blue Still Life with Knife

John Luke - The Lock at Edenderry

Mary Swanzy - Samoan Scene

Jack B. Yeats - Now or Never

Paul Henry - Lough Altan, County Donegal

Roderic O'Conor - Red Rocks Near Pont-Aven

Walter Osborne - A November Morning

F.E. McWilliam - Woman in a Bomb Blast

Jack B. Yeats - Shelling Peas in Moore Street

Patrick Collins - A Place with Stones

Gerard Dillon - Cut Out Drop Out

Patrick Collins - Travelling Tinkers

Colin Middleton - Moonlight Ballyholme

Roderic O'Conor - Anemones

William Leech - Chrysanthemums

Séan Keating - West of Ireland Quayside with figures

Colin Middleton - Winter: Camden Street

Harry Kernoff - Sunny Day, Dublin

William Leech - Studio Garden

Tony O'Malley - Big White Flower Pot

Mainie Jellett - Composition with 3 Elements

Maurice MacGonigal - Races Ballyconneely, County Galway

Aloysius O'Kelly - Corpus Christi Procession

Colin Middleton - Market Day

William Crozier - Walking to the Sea

Harry Kernoff - The Forty Foot, Sandycove

Joseph Malachy Kavanagh - Cockle Pickers

Nathaniel Hill - Goosegirl in a Breton Farmyard

Patrick Collins - Bog Country

Tony O'Malley - Ripe Cornfield in the Wind

Sir William Orpen - The Boxer

Gerard Dillon - Still Life

William Crozier - The River Boundary (Lough Hyne)

Sir John Lavery - Habiba

Grace Henry - Claddagh Market

Micheal Farrell - Au Soleil D'Or

Evie Hone - Landscape, Co. Wicklow