Chairman, Excellencies, Special Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to be here this evening to open this new exhibition-Masquerade and spectacle: the Circus and the Travelling Fair in the work of Jack B. Yeats. This special exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the death of Jack B. Yeats, one of the foremost artists of the 20th Century, here in the Yeats Museum.
With typical optimistic flourish his great friend Samuel Beckett wrote of Jack in 1957 'Yeats is the great of our time ... he brings light as only the great dare to bring light to the issueless predicament of existence.' Sam was apparently in a good mood at the time!
Jack B. Yeats was of course the son of the well-known portrait painter, John Butler Yeats and Sligo woman Susan Pollexfen. This was a truly cultured family - his brother, William, the famous poet, dramatist and Nobel Prize laureate, sisters Lilly, a designer and embroiderer, and Lolly a printer and founder of that great institution the Cuala Press and Industries, one of the most important arts initiatives of modern Ireland.
Now I never imagined that opening such a distinguished exhibition would revive memories for me of those days long ago in Galway when reading the Beano and the Dandy were highlights of every week. But one of the really fascinating aspects of the life of Jack B. Yeats is the years he spent in London illustrating comics and creating such characters as "Skilly the Convict", "Jimmy Jog the Juggler" and "Sligo Slimpen & Fatty Freelance". He was also an illustrator for publications such as Boys Own Paper, Judy, Paddock Life and Vegetarian (yes, they did exist too back in the 19th Century!).
Yeats is of course now much better known for his watercolour and oil paintings rather than his comic work, but the fact remains that he was still drawing for the comics until he was 44 after which time he decided to embrace the career that was to bring him fame and fortune. Many of Jack's formative years were spent in Sligo, with his grandparents, and it was here that he found much of his artistic inspiration in the lives of the ordinary people.
His sketchbooks and early watercolours are filled with images of country race meetings, travelling fairs, and circuses at which he observed a mixture of characters and social groups. Indeed, he later commented that:
"Painters who have an affection for their own country and their own people will paint them best". In cultural and political terms, Jack B. Yeats identified passionately with Ireland.
This affection and warmth is evident in his depiction of Irish country life, particularly in his paintings of fairs and circuses. He loved the sense of excitement and anticipation that each fresh performance generated. He believed that 'a painter must be part of the land and of the life he paints', and his own artistic development, as an Expressionist and Modernist, helped articulate a modern Ireland of the twentieth century. Indeed, Jack was described as part modernist, part impressionist and wholly genius.
Interestingly, the catalogue of this exhibition highlights the parallels that exist between Yeats' representation of clowns and circus performers, and those found in the works of other artists such as Degas, Lautrec and Picasso. Yeats' particular fascination lay with the travelling circus and its impact on rural communities and this was often interpreted in a distinctly Irish context.
Dr. Kennedy, curator of the exhibition, notes in her catalogue that the theme of the circus, points out that his use of the circus theme, and circus performers, was a metaphor for the role of the artist and the individual in contemporary life. There is no doubt that the mounting of world-class exhibitions like this one contributes to Dublin's growing reputation as a capital of culture.
Overall it must be acknowledged that the arts and culture sectors in this country are of central importance, not only to the cultural development and status of Ireland, but also in contributing to the economic and social progress of the country. Tourism, for example, benefits enormously from a thriving arts and culture sector that shows us as a people unique in heritage and unrivalled in written and dramatic expression.
I want to assure you this evening that I am committed to working with you, and for you, in expanding, supporting and promoting the arts and the cultural life of the country. In driving forward the policies and supports that will achieve this it is also important that we demonstrate for the public at large the impact and outcomes of funding and investment across the whole cultural sector.
It will surprise many, and it certainly surprised me, to discover that some 30,000 are employed in the areas of arts and culture, and it is an area that is growing by the day. And when spending across the whole spectrum of arts and culture is taken into account it means an investment each year that can be conservatively put at €500 million.
I want to continue to build on that investment and to strive with you to ensure that everyone, regardless of age, gender or background, shares in and benefits from the vibrant cultural life of the nation. Arts for all is a well-worn phrase. But it is an aspiration that I want to breath new life into and to give a fresh impetus to.
I know we have travelled some way towards increasing access to the arts but there is still a distance to travel. I am coming to my new challenge as a Minister from the Department of Social Affairs where during my three years there the priority was, day in, day out, to reach those who were in poverty or who were struggling on the margins of society.
Every week more than 970,000 men, women and children received welfare payments. How many of those 970,000 had access to or involvement in any aspect of cultural life, I don't know. I've no doubt some were artists struggling to make ends meet, but the vast majority were people struggling on the fringes of mainstream society where access to any kind of cultural opportunity can be limited.
The challenge for all of us is to build on the progress that has been made and to identify new and imaginative routes that will open up more and more opportunities to involve those who, for whatever reason, may feel excluded.
Over the coming months I would welcome your advice and support, and that of the whole cultural sector, on how together we can lay the stepping stones through policies and supports that will open up arts, culture and heritage to thousands more of our people.
Finally, how better to conclude than with the words of the artist himself, Jack B. Yeats who said: 'The true artist has painted the picture because he wishes to hold again for his own pleasure - and for always - a moment, and because he is impelled...by his human affection to pass on the moment to his fellows, and to those that come after him'.
We can be thankful, as we see here this evening, Jack B. Yeats did, indeed, pass on the moment for future generations to enjoy.
It now gives me great pleasure to declare this exhibition
open.
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