After Argentina's gruelling defeat of England last week, the choice of drink was perhaps unexpected. Sunday afternoon's opening of The Fifties - Art From The British Council Collection in the RHA gallery, was entirely fuelled by Argentinian wine. "And very high quality wine at that," said Harold Fish, director of the British Council in Dublin.
Fish invited two artists active in the period - Sandra Blow RA and Sir Terry Frost RA - as well as critic Mel Gooding, to the opening. Blow, who was gathering plenty of compliments for her chapeau, and Sir Terry, who was accompanied by his wife, Lady Kathleen Frost, met a number of fellow academicians from this side of the pond including Arthur Gibney PRHA. Art of the 1950s aside, the main topic of conversation seemed to be Italy - both Harold Fish and the chairman of the OPW, Barry Murphy, have recently returned from holidays there while Brian Doyle of Forbairt and his wife, Kay Doyle, president of the Watercolour Society, came straight from the airport following a trip to Italy. Although there was a fair number of RHA stalwarts there - Baroness Ulli de Breffni; Vincent Finn, chairman of the RHA, and Denis and Carmel O'Sullivan - there was also some new blood in the form of Bridgid Webster of CoisCeim; Tom Coghlan of the Project Arts Centre, artist Maurice O'Connell and Ali Curran, director of the Dublin Fringe Festival. On Monday evening, Sir Terry Frost gave a lecture in the gallery, followed by an informal supper at Glencairn, residence of the British ambassador Veronica Sutherland, which provided an opportunity for the visitors to meet Irish artists including Brian Maguire, Alice Maher, Patrick Pye and printmaker Brian Kennedy.