Dr Éimear O’Connor, HRHA

Research Associate

Research interests

The life and work of Irish artist Seán Keating; the contextual development of Irish visual culture in the twentieth century; the relationship between Irish art, literature and theatre with particular emphasis on the Abbey Theatre and John Millington Synge; the life and work of little-known or unknown Irish women artists (1800-present); the visual representation of Ireland at home and abroad; national and international modernism.

Publications

Books

• Editor, Irish Women Artists 1800-2009: familiar but unknown, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010.
• Seán Keating in Context: Responses to Culture and Politics in Post-Civil War Ireland, Carysfort Press, Dublin, 2009.
• Seán Keating: In Focus – catalogue for the eponymous exhibition for the Hunt Museum, Limerick, 2009.

Essays

• ‘Nationalism in Irish art’, Anglofiles, the Danish Association of Teachers of English, Denmark, 2010, pp. 64-70.
• ‘Desmond Carrick RHA and the Academic Tradition’, Desmond Carrick RHA: The Lie of the Land, Gandon Editions, Cork, winter, 2009.

Recent Catalogues

• ‘FR Figgis by Harry Kernoff’ and ‘Brendan Behan by Seán O’Sullivan’ in Literary Lives, Portraits from the Crawford Art Gallery and the Abbey Theatre, Ireland, The Crawford Gallery, Cork and Culture Ireland, pp. 50-1 and 64-5 respectively, 2010. Published to coincide with the eponymous exhibition at the McMullen Museum in Boston College, Sept-Dec 2010.
• Entries/notes/information on Keating’s work: Whyte’s, Adams and Sotheby’s Irish art auction catalogues

Recent Reviews

• Brian Bourke: 1960s-2000s, Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2010 – reviewed for The Irish Arts Review, Nov-Dec 2010.

Forthcoming publications

• Seán Keating: Painter of Modern Life, thematic approach to the artist’s life and work, projected publication – mid-2012.
• From the Inside Out: The Story of the Daniel Egan Gallery, projected publication – 2013

Curated exhibitions

• ‘Seán Keating in Focus’, Guest Curator, the Hunt Museum, Limerick, June-September 2009.

Conferences

• Convenor of ‘Familiar but Unknown- Irish Women Artists and Artisans: methods and methodologies of recovery and remembering’, Emmet Theatre, TCD, 17 October, 2009.

Selected Invited/Guest Lectures

• ‘Synge, Art and the West’, One Month, One Book Festival, 17 April 2011 – The Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.
• ‘Seán Keating – life and work’ Trinity College Library Society, 21 October, 2010.
• ‘Edvard Munch (1863-1944): his place in International Modernism’ The National Gallery of Ireland, September 2009.
• ‘From Periphery to Paris – the influence of France on Irish Art, 1880-1920’, The Byrne/Perry Summer School, Gorey, Co. Wexford, June 2009.
• ‘Text and Image – creative responses to the work of John Millington Synge’, The Crawford Gallery, April 2009.
• ‘Seán Keating and the Politics of Revolution: paintings from 1915-1946’ The National Gallery of Ireland, March 2009.

Selected Conference Papers

• ‘Art and politics, text and image 1924-72’ – invited panel, ACIS-American Conference of Irish Studies, Minnesota, April 2011.
• ‘John Millington Synge and Seán Keating: Modernism in Irish Art’, Irish Modernism, TCD, November 2007.
• ‘Ireland and the New York World’s Fair 1939 – art as propaganda in the project to imagine a nation’ ACIS – The American Conference of Irish Studies, New York, April 2007.

Selected Academic Teaching

• Visiting Lecturer to the School of Art History and Cultural Policy (UCD), 2005-2008. Courses: Irish Art and Contexts (2005-2008); European and American Modernism (2006-2008); Baroque Painting (2008).
• Visiting Outreach Tutor to Women’s Studies (UCD) NUI Outreach Programme, 2003-2006. Course: The Representation of Women in the History of Art – pre-history to modernity.

Ongoing Projects

• RHA Archive Project – completed August 2010. The Archive is now available to researchers. Please contact the RHA.

Membership of Boards/Panels

• Elected an Honorary RHA (HRHA), October 2010.
• Co-founder of ARTEfact (2005) – Journal for postgraduate art history, in association with the Irish Association of Art Historians.
• Member of the Irish Association of Art Historians.
• Member of the RSAI.
• Invited member of the Images of Research Selection Committee (UCD), 2008-9.
• Invited member of the Images of Research Organisational Committee (UCD), 2007.
• Elected Life Member of the Friends of the RHA (2009)

Dr. O’Connor on the TCD Research Support System

Contact Details

Irish Art Research Centre,,
Department of the History of Art and Architecture,,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.

Telephone: 00 353 1 8963151
Fax: 00 353 1 8961438
Email: eioconno@tcd.ie