Bank gives works to museum of modern art

BANK of Ireland has donated to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) a number of paintings and sculptures due for auction later this month.

The donation was made at the request of Minister for Culture Mary Hanafin based on the assessment of experts at Imma that they would be significant enhancements and fill in gaps in its collection.

Imma originally selected 83 works from the bank’s collection, 25 of which the museum received in 2008 with the remainder due last year.

“However, the Bank of Ireland subsequently changed its mind about the second tranche of works,” Christine Kennedy, head of collections at Imma said.

In a statement the bank said it was “happy to respond positively to the request to fill important gaps in the national collection”.

Ten of the 12 works are from the bank’s 155-piece collection due to go under the hammer at Adam’s Fine Art auctioneers Dublin showrooms on November 24th.

All proceeds from the sale of the collection this month will be distributed to community-based arts organisations.

According to James O’Halloran of Adam’s, the overall collection has an estimated value of €900,000 to €1.2 million, while the 10 works from the collection are estimated at €50,000.

The remaining two works, a 1976 untitled painting by Michael Craig-Martin and one of two sculptures by James Coleman, were not part of the auction and have not been valued.

Ms Hanafin, who wrote to the bank seeking the specific works on behalf of the State, welcomed the donation which she said helped complete the collections “of the moderns” at Imma.

Ms Hanafin stressed that it was not the monetary value of the work but their artistic merit as significant additions of the museum’s collection that was the determining factor in their selection.

“They will now go on public view rather than going back into private collections,” she said.

They “will add to the enjoyment that Irish people and visitors can gain from viewing contemporary artworks in Ireland”.

The bank made previous donations to Imma in 1999 and 2008 under tax-relief measures, donating 66 works of art in total.

Ms Kennedy said the museum had been developing its collection of works from the 1970s through the Carroll Collection donation and previous donations by the Bank of Ireland.

“However, artists such as Charles Brady and FE McWilliam are very under-represented in the collection.

“Gerda Fromel’s outstanding sculptures rarely come up for sale and Alexandra Wejchert’s works are generally on an architectural scale.”

CULTURE OF GIVING: DONATIONS INCLUDE SOME OF FINEST PIECES IN COLLECTION

THE WORKS donated to IMMA go some way towards augmenting the two previous donations to the museum from the Bank of Ireland collection, which were allowable against tax as part of the Taxes Consolidations Act, 1997.

The 46 works which made up those two original donations were chosen by IMMA and included some of the finest pieces in the collection. Broadly speaking the additions reinforce the choices previously made without casting the net any wider.

Chronologically, the bank collection's centre of gravity was in the 1970s, with significant works from prior to and succeeding that date.

While overall there wasn't any great coherence, the collection did represent a good capsule view of Irish art at a particular historical juncture, and it is to be regretted that this core element has not been preserved in any form.

Worse, works that would broaden and enhance any national collection are still scheduled to go under the hammer.

They include fine pieces by Basil Blackshaw, George Campbell, Patrick Collins, Barrie Cooke, Gerard Dillon, TP Flanagan, Martin Gale, Letitia Hamilton, Patrick Hennessy, Patrick Hickey, Nevill Johnson, Sean Keating, William Leech, Nora McGuinness, James McKenna, Sean McSweeney, Nick Miller, Nano Reid, Patrick Scott and Camille Souter, to take the most obvious examples.

All are, at the very least, of cultural historical importance, and most are outstanding examples of the artists' work.

AIDAN DUNNE