After the deluge, Glucksman re-opens
Many people will remember the newspaper pictures and TV footage of Fiona Kearney standing in the UCC gallery, which at one point was under 10 feet of water. Up to 197 of its esteemed artworks were in storage in the basement, an art store that suffered a near tsunami during the November floods.
“I was devastated, completely devastated. I thought we would be lucky to get anything back, as so much of the art had been displaced. There was huge potential for damage and a piece of art really is irreplaceable if destroyed,” she said. However, in her words, “something very special has taken place”, and on Friday President Mary MacAleese will officially re-open the gallery.
“It really is amazing, but the majority of the artworks are fine. It is amazing what you can do. I have learnt so much in the past number of weeks: art conservation really is a science and there is such experience in Ireland,” she said.
“It was a big help that the emergency retrieval was done so quickly. You never really think that you will use a disaster plan. Well, I am so delighted that we had one. We had everything at the ready: the phone numbers and all the information that we needed to ensure we could contact experts immediately,” she said.
The National Gallery, the Chester Beatty Library, the Crawford Art Gallery and the National Library all played a huge part in the conservation work, along with conservator Paul Curtis at Muckros Bindery in Killarney, Co Kerry.
Fiona said: “We had never worked together as a group of people – there were 11 of us and it all went so smoothly. There were no disagreements, and Paul Curtis was so calm. We worked quickly and it really was a great achievement.”
Glucksman staff started by removing the smaller paintings and student works from the basement before moving on to the larger works.
There was one particular painting by Martin Gale, a Royal Hibernian Academy associate member, that the Glucksman team believed couldn’t possibly survive.
“It was beautiful; one of the largest that he ever did. When I saw it in November it was under a crate containing even more paintings and in 10 feet of water for 36 hours at that point. I thought we would be lucky to get anything back on that, as it had been so displaced. We did, though, and I’m overjoyed”.
The Arctic winds that paralysed the country over Christmas and the New Year worked to conservation team’s advantage.
“Paintings need to dry very slowly and the cold temperatures were ideal for this process. If the floods has been followed by warmer weather, there would have been a danger of mildew forming on the paintings” Fiona was “in and out of the gallery” throughout the Christmas break checking the temperature of the artworks. Many of the paintings were under blotting paper so they wouldn’t blur while drying. The oil on canvas were under acid-free paper and a thin layer of glue so the paint couldn’t split.
“We had a lot of very expensive technical equipment in that basement, but the thing is that equipment can be replaced using insurance, but with a Louis leBrocquy, a watercolour, a Francis Bacon? You can’t ask them to repaint the same painting”.
“What I love about art is that it captures a time, a culture. It will be there when you and I are gone. It will tell our story.”
One major painting that didn’t survive was a large watercolour on paper by Patrick Ireland, a New-York based Irish artist. Artworks by Hughie O’Donoghue and Louis LeBrocquy are still undergoing conservation work.
Fiona said all the living artists who had paintings in the art store have been hugely supportive of the conservation efforts. The team plan to talk to each of the artists.
“Where their work was destroyed we will see what they want to do. The paintings are their children,” she said. “I am their childminder”.
President McAleese will officially reopen the gallery with the exhibition Thingamajig. It is also the official celebration of the gallery’s fifth birthday.
As part of the reopening display, the gallery will exhibit three artworks that were in storage at the time of the flooding. The display will also include information on the conservation process and how the works were saved.
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