Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger - art exhibition, Skibbereen, Cork, Ireland.

'Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger' is an exhibition of contemporary and historical art work depicting scenes from the Irish Famine and its aftermath. The exhibition is comprised of paintings and sculpture from Ireland's Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University, Connecticut, USA. This museum has the world's largest collection of Irish famine related art.

SKIBBEREEN
I attended the opening of the 'Coming Home' exhibition in Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen, West Cork, Ireland on Thursday 19 July 2018. It will run at Uillinn from 20 July until 13 October 2018. Learn more about 'Coming Home' by following this link to the exhibition's webpage.

Skibbereen is a town that had seen its fair share of death and immigration before, during and after the Famine. The Skibbereen Union area lost over a third of its people during the Great Famine. See here for more on how the town was affected by the Famine.

Following its run in Skibbereen, the 'Coming Home' exhibition will then open in An tSeaneaglais (Glassworks), Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Derry from January to March 2019. See here for more information: https://www.artandthegreathunger.org/

Some of visitors in Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre on the opening night, 19 July 2018.

The 'Coming Home' exhibition is a truly unique collection of art works. I was particularly struck by the breath of artists, painting styles and the mixture of old and new art works. They have work from the time of the Famine right up to the present day. Below are two paintings that caught my eye.

The first is by Grace Henry (1868-1953). Scottish-born Grace Henry and her Belfast-born painter husband, Paul Henry, were drawn to the West of Ireland. They were especially well known for their landscapes showing the hills, lakes and maritime scenes from Kerry, Galway and Mayo.

'Lady of the West', by Grace Henry (c. 1912-1919).

The second painting that drew my attention is by Henry Allan (1865-1912). Allan was born in Dundalk. Initially, he trained at Belfast and Dublin. Then, in summer 1884, like many of his contemporaries, he studied at the Académie Royale in Antwerp. Vincent van Gogh also studied at the Académie for a short period around this time. 

It was the style of the painting that stuck out. It was painted in 1900, but for a variety of reasons, not least the broad brush strokes, it looks like a much more modern style. According to the museum label, it shows rag pickers at a paper mill, somewhere in Dublin. The subject is obviously very sad, but I love the bright colours of the greens and browns in the foreground. 

'The Rag Pickers', by Henry Allan (1900).

The 'Coming Home' exhibition is well worth a visit. I hope you get to see it as it makes it way around the island of Ireland. A accompanying learning resource has also been developed for primary and secondary schools. It too is well worth a look. This is a link to it on the Scoilnet website. Well done to all involved with these projects that do so much to help us better understand this important time in Irish and world history.