Most political organisations use a hotel room to unveil a new leader, but not the arty party. So confident was Labour that both its contestants were oil paintings, nothing but the gallery's lecture theatre would do for the first public viewing of the winner.
The venue is more used to attractions like the recent talk on Early Christian and Byzantine Art, but in its own way this was appropriate. The Byzantine art of Labour party politicking had so baffled commentators that even as the 64 voters filed into their 11 a.m. meeting in Kildare Street, few were predicting a result with conviction.
The uncertainty extended to the party itself. Normally voluble Labour TDs had joined the school of abstract expressionism overnight. Even Dick Spring declined comment. Pressed to say something, he said: "All right, I'll be polite". Then he politely declined to comment.
The consensus among observers was that Ruairi Quinn seemed tense beforehand, while Brendan Howlin was bright and confident. But for anyone with an art-dealer's eye, there was a hint in the rivals' respective tie choice: Mr Howlin's was sober and businesslike, while Mr Quinn's design featured birdshaped pieces of blue sky - a la Rene Magritte.
While this left him open to questions about whether his claims of support were based on the realist or the Magritte analysis, it proved the choice of a man inspired. It mirrored the unseasonably clear November sky when the party reemerged just before midday with a result. And it was also perfectly tailored to the theme of the victory speech.
Indeed, the new Labour leader choked with emotion when, congratulating his rival on the dignity of the campaign, he wondered out loud if "somewhere up in the socialist sky, both Frank Cluskey and Brendan Corish are looking down on us and saying: `well done'."
If Frank and Brendan were indeed up there, they would have brought the number of former Labour leaders in the sky to three. Explaining the absence from the press conference of Dick Spring, the new leader announced his predecessor was already en route to Brussels for a conference on Cyprus.
Back on the ground, Labour's art exhibition went well. Mr Quinn spoke of his 33 years as a party member and guessed it was his extra experience that nudged the verdict in his favour. The rest of the voters, who had chosen the Old Master over Brendan Howlin's portrait-in-miniature, applauded warmly.
The invocation of Corish and Cluskey (Michael O'Leary has been airbrushed out of the old party portraits) introduced a nice Dublin-Wexford symmetry to the occasion, perfectly teeing up the speech of the loser - and now deputy party leader - Mr Howlin.
Then, answering questions, the new leader took up a theme from the old leader when he said the fact that he was based in Dublin, "physically", would make some things easier for him than they had been for Mr Spring.
Most of the time, Mr Quinn is also spiritually based in Dublin, but not yesterday. Yesterday, his spirit was soaring free somewhere up in the socialist sky, where everybody flies first class.