Date For Your Summer 2015 Diary

In the years immediately after WWII, George Campbell and this group of mainly self-taught artists, who formed the “Belfast Boys”, burst onto the Irish art scene. At that time they dominated the recently formed Irish Exhibitions of Living Art, and were all represented by the Victor Waddington Galleries until its closure in the late 1950’s. However, by the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the group was no longer seen as avant-garde enough by the critics and thus since their early deaths in the 1970’s they have drifted out of the public consciousness.

Despite the fact that Campbell was more or less ignored in his later years in Ireland, the opposite was true in his adopted country of Spain, where he annually lived for six months of the year. In 1978, the Spanish Government made Campbell a Knight Commander of Spain, the equivalent of a British Knighthood. In 2002, a George Campbell retrospective was held in Malaga, who even have named a roundabout after him, and in 2006 he was highlighted in the city’s bid for European City of Culture.

Although there was a retrospective of his works in Drogheda in 1992 there has been no major exhibition of the artist’s work in Dublin or in Northern Ireland since that time. Adam’s hope to rectify that by hosting the biggest exhibition ever staged of his work, which will also include sections devoted to his fellow “Belfast Boys”. They include Gerard Dillon, who was shown at Adam’s two years ago, as well as Daniel O’Neill and Arthur Armstrong (both of whom, like Campbell, have never been honoured with a retrospectives since their deaths) and smaller displays of work by artists such as Colin Middleton , James MacIntyre and John Turner .

Now in their sixth year, Adam’s summer loan shows have become a fixture on the visual Irish art calendar. For the last two years, the exhibitions have opened in Dublin before travelling North to The Ava Gallery where they form part of the Clandeboye Classical Music Festival with Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland. These exhibitions are unique in the fact that all 100+ works have been borrowed from private collections, bringing many of these paintings into public view for the first time in 40 or 50 years. The show is being curated by Karen Reihill and will be accompanied by an extensive 160 page catalogue detailing the life and works of this talented group of painters, led by George Campbell. We hope that this will put Campbell’s work in context and help lead to a reassessment both of his work and that of the “Belfast Boys” by a new generation of art critics, students and enthusiasts.

Adam’s, 26 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2 7th July - 30th July

Ava Gallery, Clandeboye Estate, Co. Down 6th August – 3rd September

Admission is free at both locations and catalogue will be free to download from 23rd June .

For further information, please contact David Britton on (01) 6760261 or [email protected]