2018 programme

IMMA are pleased to announce highlights of the 2018 exhibition programme, including two major new exhibitions for the museum from Wolfgang Tillmans and Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian. Tillmans has shown his work in previous group exhibitions at IMMA but this will be his first solo exhibition at the museum, and his first solo project in Ireland.

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is one of the most prominent contemporary Iranian artists and was a key figure of the New York art scene during the 1960s and 70s. This new exhibition of her work draws on the diversity of Monir’s practice over a period of 40 years, focusing on her large-scale mirrored sculptures, colourful collages, and works on paper. Entitled Sunset, Sunrise it draws attention to this under-recognised female artist, now in her early 90s, who has been a pioneer in merging traditional Persian techniques with contemporary abstraction. This exhibition marks the first time Monir’s work will be shown in Ireland.

IMMA will also present the first major Irish exhibition of the work of Frank Bowling which comes to Dublin this Spring from Haus der Kunst, Munich. A comprehensive survey of the work of the Guyana born British artist, Mappa Mundi covers five decades of Bowling’s artistic achievement with a focus on his monumental and large-scale paintings.

We are particularly pleased to open the year with an exhibition of new paintings from Irish artist Brian Maguire entitled War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings, resulting from a visit to Syria in 2017. The Aleppo Paintings document the ruined buildings of the city, offering a visceral and stark insight into the physical consequences of war and the international arms trade that fuels all conflict.

A key moment in the spring is a re-examination of the work of Lucian Freud through the lens of Irish artist Daphne Wright in a new exhibition entitled The Ethics of Scrutiny. Drawing from the IMMA Collection: Freud Project, Wright will place a number of Freud’s paintings alongside the work of writers Emily Dickinson, John Berger, Lydia Davis, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, singer Johnny Cash, and artists Gwen John, Alice Neel, Kathy Prendergast, Wiebke Siem, Marlene Dumas and Thomas Schütte.

Continuing our Modern Irish Masters series we will bring a renewed focus to the work of modernist painter Mary Swanzy this Autumn. Despite being one of the most iconic and recognisable of modern Irish artists, there has not been a substantial retrospective of Swanzy’s work since 1968, and this new exhibition aims to make a definitive study of her work.

Continuing our commitment to performance, IMMA has invited pioneering dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and writer Yvonne Rainer to Dublin. One of the most influential artistic figures of the last 50 years, Rainer’s work has been foundational across multiple disciplines and movements including dance, cinema, feminism, minimalism, conceptual art, and postmodernism. One of Rainer’s most influential dance pieces, Trio A with Flags (1966), will be performed live together with her works Talking Solo from Terrain (1963) and Chair/Pillow (1969), and Rainer herself will be in Dublin for an historic conversation about her career.

Click on the exhibition names below to read more about the individual exhibitions, which will be accompanied by a dynamic programme of talks, events, screenings, displays, artist residencies, symposia, and artist commissions to be announced throughout the year.

IMMA exhibition highlights 2018

Brian Maguire, War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings
January 26–May 6

IMMA Collection: Freud Project, Ethics of Scrutiny, curated by Daphne Wright
February 15–September 2

Frank Bowling, Mappa Mundi
March 24–July 8

Yvonne Rainer
Live Performance, May 4, 5

Brian O’Doherty, Language and Space:  Structural Plays, Rotating Vowels and other Works
April 26–September 16

Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection 2018
May 11–September 16

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Sunset, Sunrise
August 10–December 2

Wolfgang Tillmans
October 26–February 17

Mary Swanzy
October 26–February 17