‘Creatures of Many Imaginings’: An In-Depth Study of the Responses to Symbolism by Irish Artists (1893-1931)

Muireann Walsh
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2019
BA

Subject: Painting, Prints, Stained Glass
Country: Ireland
Period: 19th & 20th centuries

10,000 words

The purpose of this dissertation will be to examine the response by Irish artists to the Symbolist movement during the period 1893-1931. As one of the lesser-recognised developments in Irish Modernist art, the scholarly study of Irish Symbolism has been marred by indifference and neglect. However, Irish works of art executed in a Symbolist expression may reveal vital insight into the ‘fin-de-siecle’ era which was marked by revived creativity, burgeoning nationalist sentiment and explorations in spirituality. A new approach predicated upon a cohesive and in-depth exploration of work, is required in order to understand the engagement with Irish Symbolist art. This theoretical exploration of formal, ideological and artistic processes will comprise three separate case studies of Roderic O’ Conor, George ‘AE’ Russell and Harry Clarke.

Irish Georgian Society

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‘Creatures of Many Imaginings’: An In-Depth Study of the Responses to Symbolism by Irish Artists (1893-1931)