Cavan artist to be added to the National Collection
'The Emperor has no Clothes' was created by Rita Duffy during her residency self-isolated at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin in 2020.
A Cavan artist is to have one of her works added to the National Collection.
Minister Catherine Martin announces that 422 artworks by 70 artists will be added thanks to the €1m fund provided to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and the Crawford Art Gallery in October 2020.
Among them is work by Cavan artist, Rita Duffy, whose artwork has been acquired by the Crawford Art Gallery.
Belfast-born Duffy has regularly produced bodies of work supported by the Cavan Arts office.
They are often topical, such as her send-up of the Rising and Irish culture, during time spend at a studio based at the Old Courthouse in Ballyconnell.
The 'Souvenir Shop' featured a pink knitted balaclava, brown paper packages of household candles that looked like sticks of dynamite, and tins of shoe polish with the branding 'Birth of a Nation Salve'.
The work chosen for addition at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork is 'The Emperor has no Clothes', number four of a series of ten drawings, made during her residency self-isolated at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin in 2020.
Inspired by Goya's War etchings, Honoré Daumier and Hieronymus Bosch, she was moved to create the works in response to former US President Donald Trump's daily briefings at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has been working with the National Cultural Institutions through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to develop meaningful ways to support artists across the country at this challenging time.
In October 2020, Minister Martin committed €1m from her department to IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery to fund the purchase of artworks by artists living and/or working in Ireland.
The body of 422 artworks, spanning from 1972 to 2021, consist of paintings, photographic work, drawings, sculpture, installations, moving image, sound work, film, digital work, embroidery and performance.
As the cultural repositories for the country, the role of the National Cultural Institutions is to reflect Ireland and her people and tell the story of our country. “This has also been a challenging year for all our institutions but it has also offered an opportunity to think about museums and what they mean to people and how we share those precious artworks that form part of our National Collections," said Minister Martin. "I look forward to see how IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery will share these new additions nationally and internationally where they can be widely viewed by the public and act as a reservoir for future enjoyment, inspiration and research.”