Barbara Dawson
{{Short description|Irish art historian, museum gallery director, and curator (born 1957)}}
Barbara Dawson (born 26 April 1957){{Cite web |title=Barbara Dawson|url=http://viaf.org/viaf/192723209 | website=viaf.org|access-date=3 January 2023}} is an Irish author, editor, art historian, gallery director, and curator. She is curator of several art exhibitions including the works of notable artists such as Francis Bacon (2009).{{cite news|first1=Brian|last1=Sewell|title=True scholarship can still be found"|work=Evening Standard|date=15 December 2008|page=A42|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111319658/true-scholarship-can-still-be-found/|via=Newspapers.com}}
Dawson is the first female director of the Hugh Lane Gallery, a municipal art gallery and "the first known public gallery of modern art in the world" in Dublin.{{cite web | title=Gallery Director Barbara Dawson | website=LooktheBusiness.ie | date=20 November 2015|url=http://lookthebusiness.ie/gloss-ceiling-gallery-director-barbara-dawson/ | access-date=5 September 2022}}Hugh Lane: Founder of a Gallery of Modern Art for Ireland; {{ISBN|978-1-857-59575-8}}, p. 6 She has been the gallery's director since 1991.{{cite web|title=Here to Stay|url=https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/30838/7/friezemasters21_pp24-29_harbison_here-to-stay_final.pdf | last=Harbison | first=Isobel| publisher=Frieze Masters, The Regent's Park, London 2021 | pages=24–29 | date=2021 | access-date=5 September 2022}} She authored several books including Hugh Lane Gallery: Director's Choice.{{cite web|title=Encore|website=librariesireland.iii.com | date=16 October 2013|url=https://librariesireland.iii.com/iii/encore/search/C__SDawson,%20Barbara.__Orightresult?lang=eng&suite=def&ivts=GCM0NLXWJWEwPASycBKW3w%3D%3D&casts=SpRenEeYtXozp9b%2FJdBE%2FA%3D%3D | access-date=5 September 2022}}
Education
File:HARE IN O'CONNELL STREET (pun intended).jpg
File:Dublin_Francis_Bacon_Gallery_The_Hugh_Lane753.jpg
Dawson graduated from University College Dublin in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in history.{{cite news|last1=Hassett |first1=Darren |title=Carlow woman 'one of the most significant figures in the Irish art world in recent decades'|url=https://www.carlowlive.ie/news/home/497493/carlow-woman-one-of-the-most-significant-figures-in-the-irish-art-world-in-recent-decades.html |access-date=6 September 2022 |work=Carlow Live |date=28 November 2019 |language=en}}
In recognition of her 2010 contributions to the fine arts, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the National College of Art & Design (NCAD), and is an adjunct professor at the School of Art History and Cultural Policy, University College Dublin.{{cite web | title=UNFOLD | website=UNFOLD | date=10 May 2022 | url=https://www.unfoldbrics.art/speakers/dr-babara-dawson | access-date=6 September 2022}} In 2019, she was awarded the UCD Alumni Award in Arts & Humanities.
She serves as a member of the Dublin City Council's Public Art Advisory Committee, and has been a mentor to women at other Irish museums.{{cite web |date=14 November 2019 |title=Dr Barbara Dawson 2019 UCD Alumni Award Winner |url=https://www.ucd.ie/artshumanities/newsandevents/drbarbaradawson2019ucdalumniawardwinner |access-date=5 September 2022|website=UCD College of Arts and Humanities}}
Art gallery career
Dawson's early gallery experiences began with the National Gallery of Ireland. In 1991, at the age of 34, she became the Director of the Hugh Lane Gallery, located in Parnell Square in Dublin. The gallery is owned by the municipality of Dublin and overseen by Dublin's city manager, to whom Dawson, as gallery director, reports via the City and County Librarian.{{cite journal | last1=Smith | first1=Alistair | last2=Dawson | first2=Barbara | last3=McGonagle | first3=Declan | last4=Keaveney | first4=Raymond | last5=Hutchinson | first5=John | last6=Ryan | first6=Michael | last7=MacGonigal | first7=Ciarán | title=The New Directors | journal=Irish Arts Review Yearbook | volume=10 | year=1994 | issn=0791-3540 | jstor=20492765 | pages=72–84}}
Dawson has curated notable exhibitions for Hugh Lane Gallery, such as:
- Francis Bacon – A Terrible Beauty (with Martin Harrison; 2009){{cite web | title=Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty by Barbara Dawson, Logan Sisley, Martin Harrison on Mullen Books | website=Mullen Books | url=https://www.mullenbooks.com/pages/books/175566/barbara-dawson-logan-sisley-martin-harrison/francis-bacon-a-terrible-beauty?soldItem=true | access-date=5 September 2022}}
- Barry Flanagan on O'Connell Street (2007){{cite web | title=Dawson | website=CCC Strozzina | date=23 May 2001 | url=http://www.strozzina.org/en/authors/dawson/ | access-date=5 September 2022}}
- Hugh Lane – 100 Years (2008){{cite web | title=NSU Libraries / All Locations | website=NovaCat | date=28 September 2008 | url=https://novacat.nova.edu:446/search~S13?/aDawson%2C+Ashley%2C+1965-/adawson+ashley+++++1965/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CE/frameset&FF=adawson+barbara+++++1957&1%2C2%2C | access-date=5 September 2022}}
- Richard Tuttle – Triumphs (with Michael Dempsey; 2010){{cite web|website=library.nga.gov| url=https://library.nga.gov/discovery/fulldisplay/alma993148603504896/01NGA_INST:NGA |title=Richard Tuttle: Triumphs| access-date=5 September 2022}}
Dawson acquired Francis Bacon's London studio for the museum in 1998. The 6 meter by 4 meter studio was reconstructed inside the Hugh Lane Gallery to the smallest details, including ceiling, flooring, and dirt.{{cite news |last1=Marlowe |first1=Lara |title=Birth. Sex. Death: Francis Bacon's tragic vision of mankind |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/birth-sex-death-francis-bacon-s-tragic-vision-of-mankind-1.4024857 |access-date=7 September 2022 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=28 September 2019 |language=en}}
According to The Phoenix, in 2017, Dawson launched a five-year strategy for "doubling visitor numbers, significantly upping funding, undertaking a near €4m refurbishment programme and purchasing major artworks" from 2018 to 2023.{{cite magazine |date=5 April 2019|title=Barbara Dawson's Plan |work=The Phoenix |location=Dublin |page=20 |url=https://www.thephoenix.ie/2019/04/barbara-dawsons-plan/ |url-access=subscription |issn=0790-0562 |oclc=14114099}}
=Theft of ''In The Omnibus''=
In June 1992, the year after Dawson became Director of the Hugh Lane Gallery, the painting In The Omnibus by French artist Honore Daumier was stolen.{{cite web|title=Stolen painting returned to Hugh Lane Gallery|website=BBC News|date=13 May 2014|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27394001 | access-date=6 September 2022}} The theft took place in the afternoon during the hours when the gallery was open to the public.{{cite web | title=One of Lane's paintings 'missing' for 20 years | website=independent | date=24 April 2015 | url=https://www.independent.ie/life/one-of-lanes-paintings-missing-for-20-years-31168497.html | access-date=6 September 2022}} The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) recovered the painting during an investigation in 2013, more than 20 years later. Dawson expressed her delight that the painting had been found. She said "It was such a shock when it was stolen and we had messages of sympathy from galleries and museums in Ireland and around the world."
Author and editor
Dawson has authored and edited multiple books and texts on contemporary and modern art such as:
- Turner in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (1988); {{isbn|978-0903162463}}{{cite web | title=Turner in the National Gallery of Ireland by Barbara Dawson | website=LibraryThing.com | date=2010-10-14 | url=https://www.librarything.com/work/3147261 | access-date=6 September 2022}}{{cite journal | last=Dawson | first=Barbara | title=Highlights from the Turner Collection | journal=Irish Arts Review Yearbook | year=1991 | issn=07913540 | jstor=20492667 | pages=55–60}}
- Images and Insights: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Works from the Permanent Collection at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1993 - with Sean O'Reilly, Christina Kennedy, Crista Maria Lerm, Catherine Marshall, Daire O'Connell, and Wanda Ryan Smolin, {{isbn|978-0951424636}}{{cite journal |last1=Mulcahy |first1=Rosemarie |title=Review: [Untitled] |journal=Irish Arts Review Yearbook |date=1995 |volume=11 |pages=244–245 |jstor=20492865 |issn=0791-3540}}
- Impressionism in Britain and Ireland - with Kenneth McConkey (June 1995); {{isbn|978-0951424667}}{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=Julian |title=Review: [Untitled] |journal=Irish Arts Review Yearbook |date=1997 |volume=13 |pages=207–208 |jstor=20492967 |issn=0791-3540}}
- Francis Bacon: Francis Bacon's Studio - with Margarita Cappock (July 2001); {{isbn|978-1901702156}}{{cite web | title=Big Ideas | website=Whitechapel Gallery | date=20 January 2017|url=https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/events/barbara-dawson-big-ideas/ | access-date=5 September 2022}}{{cite web | title=Richard Tuttle in conversation with Barbara Dawson | website=Bergen Kunsthall|url=https://www.kunsthall.no/en/media/richard-tuttle-in-conversation-with-barbara-dawson/ | access-date=5 September 2022}}
- Hugh Lane: Founder of a Gallery of Modern Art for Ireland, Scala (2008) {{isbn|9781857595758}}
- Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty Steidl (28 February 2010); {{isbn|978-3869300276}}{{cite journal | last1 = Clark | first1 = Adrian | year = 2010 | title = Exhibition & book review: Auerbach, Bacon, and Smith | journal = The British Art Journal | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 116-119 | jstor = 41615404}}{{cite journal| last1 = Hammer| first1 = Martin| year = 2010 | title = Francis Bacon: Dublin and Compton Verney | journal = The Burlington Magazine | volume = 152 | issue = 1282 | pages = 59-61 | jstor = 40601504}}
- Barry Flanagan: The Spade and The Soufflé (Richard Tuttle)
References
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Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Alumni of University College Dublin
Category:21st-century Irish women
Category:20th-century Irish women