Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume III. Sculpture 1600-2000

Paula Murphy (ed.), Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume III. Sculpture 1600-2000 New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2014, 584 pp., 532 bw perhaps transnational, homogenized academicism is what the Biennale (as opposed to Irish sculpture) is essentially about. Other essays, such as Aisling Prior's 'Temporary Art' and Murphy's useful if brief 'Eire/Hibernia', go considerably further in exploring this theme. I wish there had been further coverage of the tensions between Irishness and globalism (admittedly raised in Murphy's introduction), and those between self-styled cutting-edge contemporary art and the unabashed traditionalism of much public sculpture. Practitioners of the latter have excellently written entries, mostly by Myles Campbell. They are, however, denuded in terms of illustration: Robin Buick and Jeanne Rynhart are notable instances, which again a website could redress. While the reach of the thematic essays is admirable (and to my pleasure contains a very capable one on coinage by Michael Kenny), I would have enjoyed more of a focus on folk art. …