38
However, it was through Mainie Jellett that Cubism really came to the fore in Ireland. She
personally identified three distinct phases to her relatively short artistic career. Firstly, studying
at Westminster Technical Institute from 1917, under Walter Sickert (1860-1942) where she
met Evie Hone. In 1921 they went together to Paris to learn from André Lhote (1885-1962).
Jellett wrote “with Lhote I learned how to use natural forms as a starting point towards the
creation of form for its own sake; to use colour with the knowledge of its great potential force,
and the product work based on a knowledge of rhythmical form and organic colour”. In
1922 and throughout the summers of the decade she and Hone pursued their studies with
Albert Gleizes (1881-1953), a master of Analytical Cubism. Cubism promoted intellectual
engagement and marked a distinct shift in what Irish artists had produced before. Through
his teaching, they experimented with a new technique of translation and rotation of purely
abstract forms. During the 1920s, Jellett developed compositions from those with a single
element rotated on a single axis to more complex compositions with rotations of seven and
eight elements.
This preference for abstract forms and intellectual engagement over aesthetic ‘prettiness’ was
seen as unfeminine and unattractive. She and Hone were greeted with indifference, suspicion
and even open hostility when they first showed their new Cubist style back in Ireland, with
Jellett’s art in particular being described as ‘sub-human’ and a type of ‘malaria’ by fellow artist
and critic George ‘AE’ Russell
17
.
However, Jellett’s contribution to artistic life in Ireland was not solely based on her works of
art. She became an enthusiastic champion of modernism in Irish art through her writing and
lectures on the subject in Dublin from 1926 onwards, and introduced an awareness of modern
developments and a European sensibility to the art establishment in Ireland. Around this time
her abstracts also take on the suggestion of religious representation and she contended that
spirituality could best be expressed in abstract, or at least non figurative, art
18
. Her
Homage to
Fra Angelico
remains a seminal work, not just in her oeuvre but in that of Irish art, and was even
admired by the Irish Times for the ‘mystic fascination’ of colour and subject
19
.
Hone and Jellett would remain closely associated throughout their lifetimes, although very few
works of art exist which show them using each other as models or inspiration for their figure
studies. After a brief spell in the 1920s living at a convent unsure of which path her life ought
to take, Hone channelled her religious devotion into her art work and the latter half of her
career was dominated by stained glass, facilitated by her membership of An Túr Gloine, run by
Sarah Purser. She also continued making designs in oils and gouaches and in the 1940s she used
Irish medieval carvings and sites as sources, re-presenting them in different media and adapting
the images to her own purposes in the 20th century
20
. She was a dedicated and determined
character who may have been overshadowed by her association with Mainie Jellett, but her
skill, modern vision and revival of the art of stained glass have made her a truly integral part of
modern Irish art history.
17
Barrett, C. Mainie Jellett and Irish Modernism. p.167-173 In: Irish Arts Review Yearbook (1993) Vol.9
18
Ibid.
19
Kennedy, S.B., The Society of Dublin Painters 1920-32. p.39. In: Irish Art & Modernism, Queens University Belfast (1991).
20
Wynne, M. Irish Archaeological Inspiration of Evie Hone, p.247-253. In: Journal of Kildare Archaeological Society Vol XIV
(1964-70)
Cont. p46
