In a significant artistic landmark, the National Gallery of Ireland has opened its first-ever photography exhibition, and CLAIRbyKahn is proud to have facilitated the acquisition of many of the works on display.
The View of Ireland: Collecting Photography exhibition runs from October 25, 2019 to February 2, 2020 and features images by Irish and international photographers including Erich Hartmann, Amelia Stein, Nevill Johnson, Eamonn Doyle, Inge Morath, and Jane Bown. CLAIRbyKahn worked with the National Gallery of Ireland, so they could acquire a selection of iconic photographs by Hartmann and Morath.
“We are very proud to be able to work with such an esteemed institution to help safeguard and share these masterful images of Ireland,” says CLAIRbyKahn director Anna-Patricia Kahn. “This is an exceptional opportunity to introduce Erich Hartmann and Inge Morath to new audiences and to emphasize the deep connection they felt to the Irish landscape and people.”
Erich Hartmann was born in Munich in 1922 and fled to America in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany. He began working as a photographer in New York City in the 1940s. While his portrait subjects included Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Koestler, and Marcel Marceau, he was renowned for his elegant approach to matters of science, industry, and architecture. In the 1950s, Robert Capa invited Hartmann to join Magnum Photos. Along with Our Daily Bread, his major photography projects include In the Camps (1995) and The Heart of Technology (1985). Hartmann died in 1999. His wife, Ruth Bains Hartmann, manages his photography archives.
Inge Morath was born in 1923 in Graz, Austria. After the Second World War, she joined the newly founded Magnum Photos as an editor. She began to take photographs herself, and in the 1950s she traveled widely, covering stories in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, and South America. Morath also worked as a still photographer on movie sets, including The Misfits featuring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. In Morath’s mature work, she documents the endurance of the human spirit under situations of duress as well as its manifestations of ecstasy and joy. She died in 2002, and the Inge Morath Foundation was established in 2003 to preserve and share her legacy.
Established in 1854 by an Act of Parliament, and opened to the public in 1864, the National Gallery of Ireland is one of Europe’s earliest public art galleries. It houses a collection of over 16 300 works of art spanning the early Renaissance to the present day, including paintings by Titian, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Monet, and Picasso.
“Ireland, unlike many other countries, has been slow to recognize photography as an art form. I think as a national gallery, we should really pave the way to do that,” said Sarah McAuliffe, one of the curators of View of Ireland: Collecting Photography. “We hope this exhibition will allow people to appreciate the medium as an art form and also let collectors know that the gallery is moving in that direction.”
The exhibition can be seen in the museum’s Hugh Lane Room. Admission is free.
For more information, contact Anna-Patricia Kahn at info@clair.me
National Gallery of Ireland Acquisitions — Erich Hartmann (selection)
National Gallery of Ireland Acquisitions — Photographs by Inge Morath (selection)
