ON THE TOWN: Paintings in The Tail That Wags The Dog show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art are by "people who make art without knowing they are actually making it, sometimes out of boredom, sometimes they record their dreams, and they don't know anything about art".
So says London-based Monika Kinley, founding president and curator of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection, from which the 60 works in the current IMMA show at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, are taken. Kinley and her late partner Victor Musgrave acted as patrons to marginalised artists including the poor and the mentally ill.
Kinley recalled one of the artists, the late Dusan Kusmyc, from Yugoslavia who came to Dublin as a refugee after the second World War, describing him as "a fascinating man".
"We got to know him and collected him and it made a difference to him," said Kinley. Pádraig Ó Faoláin, another friend, remembered him as "possibly the strongest man I ever met and the only true artist".
A large number of artists turned up in Kilmainham this week for the joint opening of that exhibition and the Cobra exhibition.
The Cobra show is linked to the paintings of the Outsider show "especially in the drawings that refer to the art of the children" and also through "the insane, very direct forms of expression," said Enrique Juncosa, director of IMMA.
"It's a brilliant pairing," said sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work will be on view at IMMA early next year.
Stephen Gilbert (93), whose work is featured in the Cobra show, attended the opening. He recalled his days living here during the second World War with his family, including his son, Humphrey Gilbert and his daughter, Frances Weikert.
Artists Louis le Brocquy and Patrick Scott chatted to him as guests from the Hayward Gallery in London and the new Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead milled around the courtyard of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.
Other artists who came to view the two shows included Willie McKeown, Anne Madden, Stephen McKenna and Richard Gorman.
• The Cobra exhibition continues at IMMA until September 21st (see also W6) while The Tail That Wags The Dog exhibition will run until January 4th