Painters pack in to IMMA to view the work of the Belfast-born artist, Colin Middleton. The work of the prolific painter, who died in 1983, will be on show in the Gordon Lambert Galleries until June 24th. Those present include Robert Ballagh, Brian Maguire, Patrick Pye, Stephen McKenna, Tarquin Land- seer and Gerald Davis.
They have come to enjoy Middleton's work, which George and Maura McClelland have given on long-term loan to the museum.
Middleton was "a very, very interesting man and probably one of the most under-valued painters of his time," says McClelland. "He was a methodical worker and a very hard worker." Maura McClelland, who is originally from Annascaul in Co Kerry, says that Middleton "was a character and a deep thinker". The artist's "fundamentally surreal vision of the world" has many guests puzzled, delighted, intrigued and wondering. There are question marks and smiles all around.
The artist's daughter, Jane Middleton, who has been living in Barcelona for the past 28 years, is here with her son, Johnny Prado-Middleton. "He was a very complex man, he was totally dedicated, this is just a tiny, tiny sample of what he produced. His working day began at the kitchen table every day of the year," she says, adding that it's an emotional night. This is her first time seeing some of the paintings, many of which were painted and sold before she was born. Third-year UCD students, Ciara Keohane from Cork and Colin Fearon, are interested and intrigued by it. Second-year NCAD students, Sarah Browne and Brendan Heery, are looking at a work from 1959 entitled The Sisters. "They look like they're looking at a painting and being art snobs, like we're aspiring to be," they laugh.
The artist, Brian Maguire, who was appointed as head of the NCAD's Fine Art Department last year, enjoys the show. He has worked with prisoners, mainly in Mountjoy Prison, for the past 15 years.
Daniel Dultzin, the Mexican ambassador, is here too, counting down the days to his own party (which was held last night), to celebrate the election of the Belfast-based painter, Alfonso Lopez Monreal, to Aosdana - and the launch of the Mexican edition of Marie Heaney's Over Nine Waves and Seamus Heaney's The Spirit Level.
There are no speeches, and no reference is made to IMMA's current tribulations. A busy Declan McGonagle, director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, is here mingling and talking. His wife, Maura McGonagle, chats to a former student of hers, Max Prendergast (12), who is here with his mother, Dr Bryanna Alton.
Others spotted at the opening include Miranda, Lady Broadbent, of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, the poet Anthony Cronin and French student, Vanessa Reffay, who loves the 1942 painting named Esmerelda because "it's so funny and I like the red".