Art lovers will adore the Hugh Lane gallery's new bookshop, writes Eimear McKeith
Would you describe yourself as a nobleman or a beggarman? Whichever, the Noble & Beggarman bookshop at Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane caters for noblemen, beggars and everybody in between. It's an art-specialist bookshop with a decidedly egalitarian ethos, according to Shane Hallahan, its manager. "If you want to come in and get a little book on Picasso you can, but if you want a book on someone more obscure we have that too," he says. "It's art for everyone."
Noble & Beggarman Books has an impressive selection of books on Irish and international art, design, architecture and photography - quite an achievement for a shop that began trading a mere seven months ago, when the Hugh Lane reopened with its €13 million extension.
Anyone who visited the gallery's old bookshop will recall a poky room crammed with books. If you revisit the gallery now, however, you'll find the bookshop in a bright, double-height area that greatly expands its scope and future possibilities. And this is where the imaginative title of the shop comes in. "It's based on a line from the 1937 Yeats poem The Municipal Gallery Revisited," Hallahan explains, "and now everyone is revisiting the municipal gallery. I don't know if anyone gets it, but we thought it was appropriate."
The 33-year-old graduate of philosophy and English is keen to avoid the aloofness associated with some galleries. "A lot of people are intimidated by art, either by art or by gallery shops," says Hallahan. "There is a certain snootiness on occasion . . . We try to steer away from that. We don't profess to know absolutely everything about art; we just want to help you get a book."
Hallahan possesses a mix of business savvy and infectious enthusiasm, so it's unsurprising that he was awarded the contract to run the shop. Having worked for Waterstone's for six years, he had dreamed of opening a bookshop himself - not an easy task in a market dominated by high-street chains and facing competition from the internet.
The independently run Anthology Books in Temple Bar is closing its doors soon to focus on its website, just as the family-run Kennys bookstore, in Galway, did last year. A huge US chain arrived here recently when Borders opened a branch in Blanchardstown, in Dublin - and Hodges Figgis and Waterstone's, facing each other on Dawson Street in Dublin as if permanently squaring up for a fight, are both owned by the HMV conglomerate. How can a small Irish bookshop compete with such behemoths?
According to Hallahan, the answer is through specialisation: focusing on a niche and building on a customer base. "Waterstone's and Hodges Figgis do what they do very well, so there's no point in trying to have a mini version of that, because you just won't have the range across the genres," he says. "But the future for books is specialisation. If you go and look at their art sections, you'll see ours is far superior . . . And with art books in particular, you need to see the book. The plates are very important, the colours of the reproductions. Not as many people buy art books online - fewer than, say, buy fiction. You still have to have the online presence, but you need stock in situ, so people can come in and go, 'Ooh'."
Running an independent bookshop has other advantages, according to Hallahan. "David Shrigley is a peculiar artist from Scotland, and we love him, so we can stock everything he's ever done. You don't have that freedom in a major bookshop, but the fact is he does sell. It's not just a whim. That's the major difference: you can steer the shop in whatever way you deem fit."
This means that, at Noble & Beggarman, you can find books on everything from obscure theorists to famous Irish painters to children's activity books, at every point of the price range.
"We have a Vuillard in the gallery, and it's one of my favourite paintings. So when a catalogue raisonné [ a complete illustrated catalogue of an artist's work] was published, even though it was €510, I had to go for it, because if I'm madly in love with his paintings, then I'm not the only one," says Hallahan. "We had two Pissarro catalogues raisonnés, at €500, and they're both gone, so people are willing to spend big money on beautiful books."
There is also an occasional opportunity to pick up a rarity: Hallahan recently sold a Patrick Scott catalogue that was signed by the artist, and a signed Michael Craig-Martin monograph currently graces the shelves. "We try to get anything on Irish art that remains in print, but quite a few of them have small print runs," Hallahan says. "We have quite a few books that aren't around any more. Obviously they get snapped up pretty quick - they won't be around forever." Not so long ago four copies of SB Kennedy's coveted, out-of-print Irish Art and Modernism were discovered in the stockroom. They sold immediately at €80 apiece. One copy turned up in a rare-book shop soon after, selling for twice the price.
It's not just the stock that sets Noble & Beggarman apart, however; it's the friendly, personal service. That said, Hallahan does have expansion on his mind: he hopes to open a "steady stream of Noble & Beggarmans around the country". But, he stresses, it won't mutate into a chain. "I'd prefer to call it a franchise," he says, smiling.
Noble & Beggarman Books, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Parnell Square North, Dublin 1, 01-8749294, www.nobleandbeggarmanbooks.com