Sports icon to launch landmark art exhibition in Waterford
Artist Sammy Kane photographing Olympic Silver Medal winner, John Treacy in preparation for his portrait.
Masterpieces of Irish Olympic art will be revealed at an upcoming art exhibition in Waterford City which will be officially launched by one of the most iconic names in Irish sport.
The exciting new exhibition will run in the Waterford Gallery of Art from July 26 to November 26, with the official launch due to take place on July 24.
The display will feature an incredible selection of artists that represented Ireland in the Olympic Games, and a select group of contemporary artists inspired by their story.
The launch of the exhibition, ‘Muscles & Mind: Irish Art Olympians’, will coincide with the official opening of the XXXIII Paris Olympic Games 2024, and very much in keeping with the theme the display will be opened by Olympic Silver Medal winner, John Treacy.
The revival of the modern Olympic Games in the late 1890’s, by Baron Pierre De Coubertin, embodied the ideal of a marriage between ‘Art and Sport, Muscles and Mind’.
With support from the Waterford Arts Office, Creative Ireland, and the Olympic Federation of Ireland, the exhibition will feature artists from the Waterford Art Collection, as well as some of Ireland’s most renowned artists, who competed for their country in the Olympics between 1924 and 1948.
Among the artists whose work will feature in the display are: Jack B. Yeats, Letitia Hamilton, Seán Keating, Mainie Jellett, Fr. Jack P. Hanlon, Desmond Broe, Flora Vere O’Brien, Ina Boyle, Stella Steyn, Hilda Roberts, Sir John Lavery and Sir William Orpen, to name but a few.
A spokesperson for Waterford City & County Council told Waterford News & Star that one of the main focuses of the exhibition will be to highlight how integral art was to the early Olympics and question what is means to compete and represent your nation as an artist.
The spokesperson said the gallery made some exciting discoveries including Mainie Jellett’s ‘The Bathers/Baigneurs’ artwork that was painted in 1922 but only recently identified as featuring in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
The enigmatic, and somewhat eccentric artist, Flora Vere O’Brien was featured twice in the 1948 Olympics with a poem, ‘A Song for the Road’ and a print, assumed lost, titled ‘The Hurlers’. Through the family of the artist, the gallery managed to locate one of the original editions of the print as well as the linocut the image was made from.
The granddaughter of artist Desmond Broe, Sonachú O’Callaghan-Broe, located a treasure trove of his work including his 1948 London Olympic Medal, Competing Certificate, images of his sculpture submitted in the 1948 Olympics and ‘Race of the Gael’, which was his sculpture featured in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
The Gallery also has works on display by Sir John Lavery (who represented Ireland and then changed allegiance to Great Britain) and a sketch and letter by Sir William Orpen of a billiards match. Orpen, a self-declared sports enthusiast, represented Great Britain and served as a part of the organising committee and judge in 1924.
The Olympic Council of Ireland loaned to the gallery a section of the Olympic Cauldron from the London 2012 Games, as well as artwork by this years commissioned Irish Art Olympian, Shane O’Driscoll, for inclusion in the exhibition.
As part of the Creative Ireland funded ‘Muscles & Mind: Open-Call’, the gallery will also present a group exhibition exploring themes of nationality, representation, and art as competition, by contemporary artists living and working in Ireland including Catherine Barron, James Horan, Ramon Kassam, Alison Lowry, Séamus O’Brien, Noel O’Donoghue, Laurence O’Toole, Csilla Toldy, Duc Van Pham, Síle Walsh and Lee Welch.
The WGOA SETU Graduate Award Commission, will also be officially launching the newly commissioned portrait of Olympic silver medal winner John Treacy, by recent SETU Waterford Visual Arts Graduate, Sammy Kane.
“This exhibition is a ‘must see’ and the gallery would like to thank all those who have made it possible, through their hard work and dedication,” said the Waterford Council spokesperson.
“This very special exhibition will no doubt be one to remember and one that will be part of the history of the Waterford Gallery of Art in years to come,” she said.
