Keeping up the hype
It had been given over a week to die down, the brouhaha. The very idea of over 1,000 people attending an opening, a rather a re-opening, is one to force the postponement of a visit until the excitement, or at least the initial interest, has waned. But a full ten days after the Hugh Lane flung open its sizable doors following the addition of a new extension and a much-needed general revamp, it was still choc-a-bloc. Granted, it was a Sunday afternoon, but it is rare to see a gallery bustling with so many people from mischievous toddlers all the way up to tottering pensioners.
On the back of an impressive publicity campaign and a relaunch covered on front pages as well as society pages, the honeymoon period for the Hugh Lane appears to still be in full-swing. But the question undoubtedly is whether the Hugh Lane is capable of maintaining the public's interest over the long term? The initial signs are positive and it has certainly made an impressive start. The new extension is sizable, bright and unobtrusive, while the original space is noticeably more vibrant. The Hugh Lane, it would seem, has been dragged into the 21st Century in some style.
Upon entering the new gallery space, three blackboards used by Joseph Beuys during a lecture at the space are proudly framed over the staircase, as the heavy punches arrive early on. Contemporary Irish art features heavily and walking through a room packed with newly acquired works by Sean Shanahan, Mark Francis, Elizabeth Magill and Jaki Irvine and on into the Sean Scully room, one could almost be at a group show in the Kerlin gallery.
The dedicated Scully room, designed to house several works the artist donated to the Hugh Lane, is well curated, which makes the tableaux easy to appreciate, but the new acquisitions are all just a little too tame and risk-free for my liking.
Audio guides accompany the viewer around the space and multi-media touch-screen computers further yank the Hugh Lane into the modern era, with the reconstructed chaos of Francis Bacon studio benefiting from the latter technical advance. In the upstairs space, the Patrick Ireland/Brian O'Doherty retrospective, Beyond The White Cube, sets a high benchmark for the temporary exhibitions to follow.
Patrick Ireland, a Irish-born, US-based artist, has consistently produced conceptually complex and intellectually weighty works backed by a simplicity of style throughout his career. His oeuvre can be a daunting prospect for the uninitiated and in response, the Hugh Lane has produced a guide explaining the key works in each room. Ireland's Labrinth series, the Bauhaus-influenced chess board, a site-specific drawing created especially for this exhibition and one of his famous Rope Drawings, are all explored in the mini-guide, providing the casual viewer with a neat introduction to some of the crucial stages of Ireland's career.
And this is the key – the Hugh Lane is user-friendly. Regular gallery goers will trickle through the doors of any major Dublin space, but the casual viewers and Sunday afternoon perusers – and there were plenty last weekend – need to be lured back. With an impressive permanent collection, a significant temporary exhibition and a well-planned space, the Hugh Lane might well succeed.