Trove (2014) — Dorothy Cross

Trove

3 December 2014 – 8 March 2015
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

This show was a selection of works from the collections of the National Museums of Ireland: The National Gallery, National Museum, Irish Museum of Modern Art , Natural History Museum and the Museum of Country Life .

Trove came into being due to an extraordinary invitation to access treasures within the museum’s collections and to delve into the stores and archives of this rarely seen world. Days were spent searching through the stores, with Johanne Mullan, to find things that attracted and excited. Bringing objects together was a chance to re/consider things that had already been considered exceptional, and to create new relationships between painting and object from collections that would rarely meet. The selection did not aim for celebrity works but for lesser known items that remain in the shadows. The intention of Trove was to harness the excitement of pulling open a drawer in the museum to find a row of fossilised sharks teeth or exquisite miniatures. We wandered down corridors where shelf upon shelf contained bronze-age pots and giant balls of bog-butter. Trove was about discovery and the possibility of considering Poussin or Vermeer in the same breath as a hummingbird egg.

List of works above (click to expand)

Thomas Ruff Porträt 2001 (A. Roters), 2001

Skull of northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) from Co. Louth. From Sir Henry Bellingham, 1900

John Lawlor, The Blind Girl at Castle Cuille

Skull of long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas)

Thomas Kirk, Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Mathematician and Astronomer Royal in Ireland

Skull of Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) from Slyne Head, Clifden, Co. Galway. From Mr James O’Malley, 1930

John Hogan, Portrait of a Young Woman

Skull of long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) found buried in sand, beach at Roundstone, Co. Galway. From Mr D.R. Tristram, 1959

Christopher Moore, Thomas Moore (1779–1852), Poet

Skull of Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) from Slyne Head, Clifden, Co. Galway. From Mr James O’Malley, 1930

Edward Foley, Portrait of a Girl, 1873

Jacopo Tintoretto, Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, 1555

List of works above (click to expand)

Joseph Higgins, Portrait of a Girl in Pink, undated

Thomas Ruff, Porträt 2001 (A. Roters), 2001

Christopher Moore, Thomas Moore (1779–1852), Poet

Skull of Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) from Slyne Head, Clifden, Co. Galway. From Mr James O’Malley, 1930

Edward Foley, Portrait of a Girl, 1873

List of works above (click to expand)

Home Alter, c.1950

Wooden shrine, c.1950

Home alter, c.1945

Charles Lamb, A Quaint Couple, 1930

Photograph of the Crawford School of Art-Life drawing, c.1930

Dry Turf Barrow, c.1950

Soap bars, c.1940

Hen’s Nest of plaited straw with single compartment, 1955

Willie Doherty, Protecting/Invading, 1987

Báinín jacket, 1962

Drár bán, 1963

Pampooties, c.1930

Bog butter, Ireland, find place and exact date unknown, possibly medieval period.

Joseph Higgins, An Strachaire Fi, c.1823

Model present amongst the stones one day a week – to replace a statue of a greek Apollo that was not available to borrow.

List of works above (click to expand)

Ogham stone, Gortatlea, Co Kerry, 6th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Derryquin, Co Kerry, late 6th – early 7th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Ballinvoher, Co Kerry, early 6th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Martramane, Co Kerry, early 6th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Lisselane, Co Kerry, 5th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Ballyhank, Co Cork, mid to late 5th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Whitefield I, Co Kerry 5th -6th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Whitefield II, Co Kerry, mid to late 5th century A.D.

Ogham stone, Killorglin, Co Kerry, 5th century A.D.

William McKeown, Hope Painting (Going Through the Looking Glass), 2005, 2005

Image of Apollo, c.350 BC, originally selected to stand with the Ogham Stones however the work is too fragile to travel

Sheela-na-gig, Seir Kieran, Co Offaly, late medieval period

Occasionally a male model was present amongst the stones – replacing the marble statue of a Greek Apollo pictured, that was unavailable to borrow.

List of works above (click to expand)

LEFT:

Georgian Irish wing armchair

Iron Meteorite from Campo del Cielo, Argentina. 137kg nickel iron alloy, c.4.5 billion year old fragment of debris left over after planets formed in the early Solar System

CENTRE:

Orrery (solar system model)

Patrick Scott, Meditation Painting 28, 2007

RIGHT:

Báinín jacket, 1962

Drár bán, 1963

Pampooties, c.1930

Home Alter, c.1950

Wooden shrine, c.1950 Home alter, c.1945