THE UNDISPUTED STAR OF Rose '84 is its venue, the Guinness Hop Store in Rainsford Street. It is quite simply the best venue that Rose has ever had, and the first firm indication that the exhibition might have found a permanent home. It provides a setting of breathtaking drama for the art work, and turns the show into a remarkable and indispensible event, something it really hasn't been since the original Rose in the RDS back in 1967.

"Rosc and controversy, it would seem, are inseparable," noted the Rosc press release. Aidan Dunne reports on the controversies which have occurred in Rosc '84.

An interview by Aidan Dunne

Aidan Dunne: You were born in County Kilkenny. How long did you live there?

In several senses, Barrie Cooke occupies the middle ground in Irish art. He lives in Kilkenny. At Jerpoint near Thomastown, with Sonja Landweer, and he is one of the few artists in the country to have earned the near universal approbation of his peers. The quahty. range and consistency of his work have engendered wide and genuine respect.

MARTIN GALE'S RURAL PAINTINGS BY AIDAN DUNNE

*Aidan Dunne is art critic for In Dublin magazine