(Page 2 of 3) By 1949 the collection comprised thirty-six pictures and it is reported in 1949/50 that 'among other activities which might be mentioned were the several items from the CEMA collection of paintings to decorate the reception room at Balmoral during the visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh and the Exhibition of the whole collection in Bangor Co. Down.' Throughout its history the Council's exhibition programme and its collections policy have been informed by the advice of Keepers of Art at the Ulster Museum; John Hewitt, Anne Crookshank, James Ford Smith, Ted Hickey and Brian Kennedy have all contributed their expertise. In 1955 the Irish Exhibition of Living Art travelled North for the first time and was shown at the Ulster Museum. The CEMA Art Committee 'with some pride made a major purchase by adding to its collection Self-contained Flat by Gerard Dillon an outstanding work in the exhibition’ (now in the collection of the Ulster Museum). In 1956/57 the collection was displayed in a large number of public places including hospitals and schools throughout Northern Ireland. Generous gifts from artists and their families have been made to the collection to mark events or to acknowledge support; F.E. McWilliam presented a portfolio of lithographs which included works by Henry Moore, Duncan Grant and John Piper; Louis Le Brocquy presented a portrait head of James Joyce. Until his death in 1983 Colin Middleton was acknowledged 'as a master of Ulster painting.' A gift made by his widow Kathleen of a major and impressive work entitled El Patio coincided with the opening of the new City Hospital in Belfast and the work was appropriately placed there. To thank the Arts Council for assembling and presenting a retrospective exhibition of the work of John Luke, the artist's sister Sadie McKee gifted a painting "Ballygally Castle' to the collection. In 1973 the Tate Gallery in London organised a retrospective exhibition of works by William Scott and from this exhibition the Council purchased 'Still-life with Orange Note', a large canvas which Scott had painted in 1970. In 1961/62 the Arts Council launched its first open painting exhibition competition which attracted 300 entries. The two judges Bryan Robertson and Ceri Richards selected 92 paintings. The declared intention was to bring good examples of contemporary work before the Northern Irish public. A special fund for the purchase of paintings from this exhibition which had been set aside by CEMA was augmented by a £2000 grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The importance of this strategy rested on the fact that the works which were expected to be purchased ‘would be representative of the more progressive contemporary work being done and that they would demonstrate that strong virtue of a living art, a readiness to explore and to experiment.' Eleven paintings were bought and with some others from the collection were toured throughout Northern Ireland. The open painting exhibition competition continued biennally throughout the sixties. The Gulbenkian Foundation agreed that the grant originally made to enable the Arts Council to acquire paintings from the Open Painting Exhibition be used to buy contemporary paintings from London galleries. So, with the assistance of Ronald Alley, then Deputy Keeper of Art at the Tate Gallery, works were purchased which formed the nucleus of 'a first rate collection of works by more progressive British painters.' Ronald Alley was followed for two years by Douglas Hall, Director of the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, as the Council's external advisor. In 1965 a special meeting considered the whole question of acquisition by the Council and approved a policy complementary to that of the Ulster Museum. Thus, in the long term, the community would own a widely representative collection of contemporary art. |
