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Visual Arts
& Artists

We’re breaking boundaries in every artistic medium

Dublin is at the forefront of Ireland’s modern visual arts revolution, with new institutions and an evolving arts scene producing some of Ireland’s most innovative and interesting artists. From painting to video to photography, Dublin’s artists are setting trends in every type of media. Artists such as James Coleman, Shane Cullen, Clare Langan and Grace Weir all call Dublin home. Dublin’s art includes everything from realist sculpture to experimental and challenging imagery.

The most famous artists with links to Dublin were Jack Butler Yeats and Francis Bacon.

Known for his raw and graphic imagery, the Surrealist Bacon painted abstract figures often isolated in glass or steel cages. An Impressionist painter, son of Irish portraitist John Butler Yeats and brother of Nobel Prize winning poet William Butler Yeats, Yeats was born in London and settled in Dublin.

Many of the works by Ireland’s most admired artists are found in the National Gallery, including drawings and paintings by portraitists Garrett Murphy and James Latham, landscape artist Nathaniel Hone, and painter Roderic O’Conor. The Gallery also features works by Dublin artist William Orphen, who depicted Irish life in his paintings. In addition to the National Gallery, Dublin is home to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. The Irish Museum of Modern Art opened its doors in 1991 featuring art work from 1940 to today. Established in 1908 and renovated between 2004 and 2006, the Dublin City Gallery was the first public gallery of modern art in the world.