IMMA: From bad to worse
Posted on October 21, 2006
Filed Under art, culture, customer service, design, imma, la-la-land, review | Comments Off
Today started well. It was reasonably sunny and warm as I left the gym. Suitably refreshed after my jacuzzi, even Ballymun looked as good as it ever has. Things were really looking up as I headed over to the IMMA, on the spur of the moment, to have lunch there. I was even listening to the new CD by Messiah J and the Expert (I’d been searching for it for ages).
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Sadly, things started to go wrong once I crossed the Liffey to the dreaded Southside. Some kids, ever so nonchalantly, started throwing stones at a Dublin tour bus that had foreigners on it. They were foreigners so that was ok?? My mood darkened when I saw this ‘graffiti’ on a wall near the IMMA. Objectionable though it is, you have to secretly applaud the writer for getting his message across in 10 words or less. It certainly beats a 100-page manifesto from any political party.
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I consoled myself that things couldn’t get any more depressing as I pulled into the IMMA carpark. Afterall, I had lunch and some nice art to look forward to. Oh no! Oh, my God, no! God and mammon certainly clashed in the Grass Roots cafe in the basement of the museum. A veggie lasange was €8! I settled for the mushroom and basil soup and it was not pleasant. If I ordered a Ham and Cheese sandwich, it would be reasonable to expect both to be present in the final product. Not so with my mushroom and basil soup. You’ve been warned.
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I don’t know which annoyed me more – the staff or the museum itself. The staff seemed to be all female, all dressed in black, all engrossed in a book, and all dedicated to avoiding any customer contact. Half of the museum was closed and there were odds and ends of artwork dotted around the place in crates. In any event, the art that was on display was pretty decent. The exhibition I enjoyed most was Irish Art of the Seventies. I guess the word ‘of’ covers a lot of ground. The Louis LeBrocquy paintings were amazing, particularly one called Being (2002). I realise this is a 2002 painting but most of the LeBrocguy was mixed in with the 1970′s exhibition. Actually there were two of his paintings called Being but I liked the one on the left the most! Other notables from Irish Art of the Seventies included:
| Deborah Brown | White Brush Strokes (1962) | 1962 – yeah I know! |
| Martin Gale | Sonny’s Day (1980!) | yeah, he’s English! |
| Martin Gale | Intrusion (1978) | |
| Robert Ballagh | Northern Ireland, the 1,500th victim (1976) | yeah, it’s a print! |
I returned to the lobby to see what else was going on that day. The noticeboard pointed me towards the New Gallery where an exhibition called something like Art Inside Out was going on. The New Gallery is a separate building to the main IMMA. It’s not on the maps in IMMA but I found it anyway. I also found out it was closed. I immediately returned to the lobby to warn the receptionist in case she didn’t know. The receptionist, who was female, dressed in black, and engrossed in a book, smiled at me and said that that exhibition was closed. That’s all. Smile and ‘it’s closed’. No apology, no embarassment, no anything.
There were various books lying around the exhibition rooms, nailed to the window sills. I guess it was an advertisement to go to the bookshop and buy the bloody things. One book caught my fancy and it was called something like like A History of Irish Modern Art. After a hour or so of reasonable entertainment, I went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art‘s bookshop to buy ‘A History of Modern Art‘ but it wasn’t available. Hmm.
I guess I would recommend a visit but make sure you eat first and arrive with low expectations. I know it’s damning the place with faint praise but, at least it’s not as bad as the Hugh Lane Gallery.
