The Garda went shopping this week and boosted the States' art collection by purchasing 20 paintings at the RHA exhibition. CATHERINE CLEARYtakes a look at what other treasures they will be joining
MICHEÁL MARTIN has none. Bertie Ahern brought his favourite one with him when he left office. Brian Lenihan can gaze at the colours of powdered gems as he ponders the future of the economy. And Mary Harney can look at one of hers and reflect on the challenges of a lone woman in a hostile world.
If senior Cabinet members get a chance to stop and stare at the art that adorns the walls of their offices these days, they can enjoy pieces from the oldest and most eclectic collection of Irish art in the world. The multi-million-euro Office of Public Works (OPW)State art collection now stands at almost 10,500 pieces. It includes one poem and three pieces of music. And it brings art into many corners of public life, from tax and social welfare offices to Garda stations and the corridors of power.
The collection has been bought or commissioned over the years by civil servants at auction houses, exhibitions and graduate shows. No one has tried to put a value on the collection, which dates from the 1830s when the British administration starting commissioning portraits of the powerful. This week, 20 new paintings, costing €35,000, were purchased for Garda headquarters and can be added to the catalogue.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has had a long-standing relationship with one State-owned artwork and had it moved from the taoiseach's office to his refurbished backbench suite in Setanta Place this year. A spokesman for the OPW Art Management Office says it allowed the drawing of Pádraig Pearse by Michael O'Dea to be moved to his new office after a request from Ahern. It also "placed on loan" a landscape by Brett McEntagart RHA, titled Dordogne Meadow, which was purchased by the OPW in 1991.
Unlike Ahern, his successor Brian Cowen has not made any requests for paintings from the State collection since he came to office. But the Art Management Office borrowed a Paul Henry landscape of the west of Ireland from the National Gallery for the new Taoiseach's office. So perhaps there was no need to paint over any unsightly bleached square left in the wake of the removed Pádraig Pearse drawing.
Reflecting new recession sensitivities, a spokesman pointed out this week that the money for the recent Garda shopping trip at the RHA came from the Per Cent for Art scheme, through which 1 per cent of a building budget is spent on art.
As such, the money for the paintings was one of the last residues of cash from a time when finances were not so tight.
The man in charge of that cash, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, inherited three abstract expressionist works by Michael Casey from his predecessor, Brian Cowen, when he moved into his current department. One of the three paintings, Midlands Magic, depicts a blaze of colours exploding from a green background. Casey told The Irish Timesthat its vivid colours come from grinding precious and semi-precious stones, mixing the fine powder with oil and acid, and layering this "paint" on organic Chinese paper. The final painting was then polished, as a granite worktop might be, to bring out the sheen. Was it an honour to know that his work was hanging in the Minister's office? "Absolutely," Casey said.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has no paintings in his office, a spokeswoman said, as the fabric panels and wooden mouldings on the walls of the Iveagh House room, dating from 1866, are not suitable for picture hooks or rails.
IN MARY HARNEY'S office at the Department of Health, the collection of art includes a photograph by Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art graduate Róisín Morris, called What Waited Inside Herself. It is one in a series of five photographs depicting the artist in different settings. According to Morris's description, they "endeavour to give name to the sadness, the inner turmoil, which plagues many people in today's society".
The former Progressive Democrats' leader's art also includes a slightly more cheerful image of a Co Donegal landscape by the late English painter, Derek Hill, and an abstract painting by Wexford artist Tonia Kehoe called 900 Years of Disquiet.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, has three pieces from the State collection in her office: Forest in Sligo, by Michael Flaherty; Howth, by John Kirwan; and a painting of Dún Laoghaire Harbour by Colm Butler.
Her party colleague, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, has a large modern acrylic on canvas "showing synoptic or unusual images of the Four Courts by Wenecjusz Mielechowicz". He also has a painting of wildflowers by Michael Canning, called Poulenc.
In Éamon Ó Cuiv's office at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the landscape of the west of Ireland and the political dynasty started by Ó Cuiv's grandfather, Eamon de Valera, are represented in the choice of art. A Sean O'Sullivan oil painting of Sinéad de Valera hangs alongside a Brian Bourke landscape, Ower Autumn1992, and an Eileen Meagher landscape, Sheep and Bog Cotton.
According to his spokeswoman, Ó Cuiv also has a personal collection, consisting of a family photograph, a pencil drawing of Eamon de Valera by Sean O'Sullivan, a Nora Keane watercolour of a landscape at Corr na Móna and a landscape of the Isle of Skye by Tom McIntyre.
Art has been commissioned or purchased under the Per Cent for Art scheme since a government decision which coincided with the start of the boom in 1997.
The State collection includes a poem called Six Sycamores, by Paula Meehan, commissioned in 2000 to commemorate a "new link building within the OPW's own offices at 51-52 St Stephen's Green". A sculpture by Marie Foley was commissioned to go with the poem.
THE STATE ALSO OWNS three pieces of music: a Fergus Johnston work to commemorate the conservation of Ardfert Cathedral, Co Kerry, in 2001; a Benjamin Dwyer composition to mark the 125th anniversary of public access to St Stephen's Green in 2007; and, last year, 100 Paces, a Sean Taylor sound work "based on formalised army drill movements", for the new military history building at Collins Barracks.
The artworks bought or commissioned under the scheme are "part of the building design", according to the OPW spokesman. The Government's art adviser, Patrick Murphy, is involved in some decisions about what to buy, but OPW architects also advise the State on what art to choose for public building projects.
The emphasis is on buying small pieces by emerging Irish artists, some of whom may be recent arts school graduates. "The maximum we can spend on any one particular project is €64,000," the OPW spokesman says.
Paintings are often moved around between offices, either at the request of their occupants, for restoration or to update a building. Some 200 pieces are in storage, some of them awaiting re-framing, conservation or repair. All the pieces are catalogued by the OPW.
Under the e-government programme the catalogue is to be made available online through the OPW website once issues of copyright are resolved with the artists.
Art lovers will be able to search through images of the artworks and make written requests for more information or a chance to visit the building to look at the piece. Depending on where it is, the request may be granted, though "if it's in someone's office it may not always be possible," said an OPW spokesman.