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    • ART EVOLVE, ONLINE SALES AND EXHIBITIONS UNDERWAY NOW

    March 28th, 2026

    Red Orchard by Louise Neiland at Taylor Galleries at Art Evolve.

    With cutting edge contemporary art at Art Evolve in Dublin, the annual members exhibition at the Lavit Gallery in Cork and online art auctions in full swing Irish collectors are spoiled for choice right now. More than 60 galleries and artists are assembled under one roof this weekend at Art Evolve making the RDS a great venue for the culturally curious.

    Even if you happen to keep a very close eye on contemporary happenings in the art world there is bound to be new work and new artists to discover. This show offers a great opportunity to trawl through what is currently being created in Ireland and available right now.

    Blue Cupped edition 3 by Nigel Rolfe at Green on Red Gallery at Art Evolve.

    At Art Evolve the Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA) has joined forces with other  galleries and individual artists.  The CAGA galleries driving this event are Kevin Kavannagh, Kerlin, Taylor,  Oliver Sears, SO Fine Art Editions, Solomon, Molesworth, Hillsborough and Green on Red. 

    Demand for high end modern art is dynamic according to organiser Patrick O’Sullivan.   There is no shortage of variety, affordability and availability making this a good time for art lovers to get their skates on and join in the hunt.  More than 9,500 people came to view the first edition last year and interest runs high.

    Majestic Vellum Hathor by west Cork based Hammond Journeaux at the Lavit Gallery.

    If you cannot make it to Dublin the annual members exhibition by Cork Arts Society at the Lavit Gallery is now underway. This is an annual highlight where work submitted by members is selected for show.  Around 100 works from over 300 submitted were chosen by the three person judging panel, Katie O’Grady of The Glucksman, artist Michael Quane and Sarah Foster from the Crawford College.

    Exhibitors include Katherine Boucher Beug, Wendy Dison, Paul la Rocque, Deirdre Brennan, Hammond Journeaux, Damaris Lysaght, Ben Reilly, Inge van Doorslaer, Vivienne Bogan, Gerard Daly and Joseph Heffernan.  The exhibition continues until April 18.

    The Galway based auction house Dolan’s is running a timed online auction with Irish art and rare Irish whiskeys until 6.30 pm next Monday evening.  There is a collection of 60 Irish whiskeys, mostly Very Rare Midleton, which attracts global internet demand from as far afield as Sydney and San Francisco.

    Among the artists in the auction are Arthur Maderson, Cecil Maguire, Susan Cronin, Mark O’Neill, Charles Harper, Maurice Wilks, George Gillespie, Desmond Turner, Manus Walsh and Anne Primrose Jury.  There is a collection of original Hollywood film posters and autographed photographs of stars including Debbie Reynolds, Pierce Brosnan, Maureen O’Hara, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, Meryl Streep and Nick Nolte. The catalogue is online.

    Early Easter light on Inishmaan by Cecil Maguire at Dolan’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

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    MUCH TO INTEREST COLLECTORS AT WHYTE’S ONLINE ART SALE

    March 28th, 2026

    Einis Eoghain (D) by Felim Egan UPDATE: THIS MADE 420 AT HAMMER

    With everything from a cool abstract etching by Felim Egan entitled Einish Eoghain to a cheerful  oil on canvas of boats at Dunmore East by Henry Morgan the Spring online art sale at Whyte’s offers much to interest collectors.  The timed online auction runs until the evening of March 30.

    The most expensively estimated lot is a Moonlit Roman Scene with Figures by Markey Robinson (€3,500-€4,500). The sale offers landscapes, seascapes, drawings, woodcuts, racing paintings, abstraction and a self portrait by Damien Hirst composed of a light box and X-rays (€600-€800).  A self portrait – Baked bean boy by Bono is estimated at €400-€600.  The online catalogue lists 235 lots with estimates from €80 to €4,500.

    Boats in Harbour, Dunmore East by Henry Morgan UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER

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    GET TO THE SOURCE AT ART EVOLVE AT THE RDS

    March 27th, 2026

    Diarmuid Breen – Rendezvous in a yellow dress

    Taylor Galleries will bring this work by Diarmuid Breen to Art Evolve, which opens today at the RDS in Dublin. Members of the Contemporary Art Gallery Association will join forces with other galleries and artists for the fair, which runs on March 27, 28 and 29. In its first edition last year the event attracted 9,500 visitors.

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    ARTHUR MADERSON AT DOLAN’S ART AUCTION

    March 26th, 2026

    ARTHUR MADERSON – DISTANT BATHERS IN THE PIERCING LIGHT. UPDATE: THIS MADE €10,000 AT HAMMER

    This oil and mixed media by Arthur Maderson – Distant Bathers in the piercing light, near Dromana, Co. Waterford, August 1995, is lot 48 at Dolan’s timed online auction of art and whiskeys which runs until March 30. The estimate is €12,000-€14,000 and it is the top lot of the sale. Among the artists whose work will feaure are Cecil Maguire, Charles Harper, Susan Cronin, Mark O’Neill, Markey Robinson, Mat Grogan, Maurice Wilks, Anne Primrose Jury, Manus Walsh, George Gillespie, Norman Teeling, James MacKeown, Frank Egginton, Wycliffe Egginton, Robert Egginton, Patrick Cashin, Douglas Hutton, Paul Stephens, Desmond Turner, Steve Browning, Henry Morgan, Dave West and Peter Curling. The catalogue for the sale is online.

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    VASE MAKES MORE THAN 13 TIMES THE HIGH ESTIMATE AT SHEPPARDS

    March 25th, 2026

    ROYAL WORCESTER COVERED VASE, 1915 – SWANS IN FLIGHT

    This Royal Worcester vase made a hammer price of €4,600 over an estimate of €250-€350 at Sheppards ongoing sale of contents from Kilroan House, Glanmire, Cork and other clients. It is richly decorated with raised gilt rococo scrolls and hand-painted swans in flight against a sky-blue and olive-green ground. The pierced neck and handles are decorated with gilt and blush highlights and the domed cover is surmounted by a gilt finial. The underside is printed with the Worcester crown mark, registration number 168915. 

    Charles Henry Clifford Baldwyn, one of the most gifted artists at Royal Worcester in the late 19th and early 20th century, specialised in bird painting. His paintings of swans in flight on vases became signature pieces. The designs were so distinctive and synonymous with his name that no other decorator was allowed to paint them during his employment at the Royal Worcester factory. Baldwyn was also allowed to sign his designs at a time when few factory artists were permitted to do so. Royal Worcester went to the trouble of registering this and other designs by Baldwyn to discourage copying by other rival factories because the style was so desirable and important for their sales. Later versions of the Baldwyn swans registered pattern could be printed in outline and then coloured in by other factory painters.

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    THE MOST EXPENSIVE GUITAR EVER SOLD

    March 23rd, 2026

    Meet the most expensive guitar ever sold. David Gilmour’s 1969 Fender Stratocaster  – nicknamed the “Black Strat” – was played on all six of Pink Floyd’s albums between 1970 and 1983.  Among them were The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall.  It made $14.6 million (€12.73 million) at Christie’s auction of the Jim Irsay Collection in New York where 44 lots made 373% times the low estimate.  The auction brought in $84 million (€73.25 million).  A piano owned by John Lennon made $3.2 million (€2.79 million). The previous record for a guitar was Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E played during Nivana’s legendary MTV unplugged performance in 1993 which sold for $6 million (€5.23 million) in 2020.

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    IRISH INTERIOR MAKES INTERNATIONAL WAVES

    March 22nd, 2026

    An interior view at Ardbraccan, Co. Meath.  Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: LOTS FROM ARDBRACCAN IN THE SALE REALISED £1.2 MILLION

    Heartening to see an Irish house making waves on the international decorative arts and interiors markets.  A carefully curated selection of beautiful English and Irish decorative arts from Ardbraccan House, a Palladian mansion in Co. Meath, will feature at Christie’s Collections London sale online from April 1-15. It has been home for over a decade to celebrated interior designer Serena Williams-Ellis and her partner Charles Noell.

    An Irish George II side table from the mid 18th century is estimated at £40,000-£60,000 (€46,170-€69,250).  A set of five mid 18th century leather fire buckets from the collection of the Dukes of Leinster at Carton House (£2,000-£3,000)(€2,308-€3,462), a portrait of Sophia Southwell, nee Campbell later Lady de Clifford by Sir Joshua Reynolds (£30,000-£50,000)(€34,630-€57,710)  and a group of sporting pictures led by horse paintings by John E Ferneley Senior all feature.

    Serena Williams-Ellis, who likes a house to smile, said: “The collection at Ardbraccan was organic in its formation over the years.  I wished to get the balance of being grand enough for the house but in no way was it to feel austere, the all important thing was to feel as if it had always been there and was comfortable as it sat within the house. I wanted all things in our collection to have the charm factor – something of beauty or to make you smile.  Ardbraccan under our tenure became a Stud Farm”.

    Mid 18th century Irish George II side table from Ardbraccan Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: THIS MADE £76,200

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    AUCTION OF IMPORTANT IRISH ART AT ADAMS

    March 21st, 2026

    Reflections by Paul Henry. UPDATE: THIS MADE 150,000 AT HAMMER

    Reflections by Paul Henry at Adams evening sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on March 25 is enough to give us all pause for thought.  The catalogue cover lot is not typical of Henry’s work. The focus of the painting is the lake.

    Paul Henry is celebrated for his treatment of clouds, rapidly changing skies and the quality of light in the west of Ireland.  Painted in the 1930’s Reflections is redolent of that Ireland then, but this work is different.  The lake takes centre stage, the water dominates and the sky is a mere narrow band. In this particular artwork, estimated at €100,000-€150,000, you get a reflected sky. It shimmers on the lake surface.

    From the photo realism of John Doherty to a volumetric composition by Mary Swanzy the 124 lots with estimates from  €300 to €150,000 in this live and online auction hold a mirror to the many pathways that Irish artists have chosen to reflect their surroundings.

    Cathedral, Semur by Mary Swanzy UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER

    Swanzy’s Cathedral Semur (€20,000-€30,000) displays the influence of Cezanne both in the colour scheme and the perspective.  Everything moves upwards towards the 14th century gothic cathedral elevated above the town centre.  The Maxol Family by John Doherty (€7,000-€10,000) is an acrylic on canvas with a set of blue petrol pumps on the side of the road, a once familiar scene now vanishing from our townscapes.  As if to underscore this a second work by Doherty – titled Abandoned in Bantry – depicts a no longer in use red petrol pump abandoned at a derelict site.  The acrylic on paper has an estimate of €1,500-€2,000.

    Child Scarecrow/Falling Kite by John Shinnors (€10,000-€15,000) shows themes the Limerick artist has revisited and drawn inspiration from.  The Sermon on the Mount by Evie Hone (€1,000-€1,500) is a watercolour from the estate of Leo Smith of the Dawson Gallery in Dublin.  There are abstract works by William Scott and Felim Egan, landscapes by Frank McKelvey and Charles Lamb and the auction offers works in bronze by Melanie le Brocquy, John Behan and Imogen Stuart.  The catalogue is online and bidding starts at 6 pm on Wednesday.

    The Maxol Family by John Doherty  UPDATE: THIS MADE 22,000 AT HAMMER

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    THIS ARTWORK WAS A METAPHOR FOR THE NEW IRISH STATE

    March 21st, 2026

    Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,500 AT HAMMER

    Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating (€10,000-€15,000) dates to 1940.  It is a particular take on the Biblical story where Elijah was supposed to be protected and fed by ravens. In this work it seems as if Elijah is being attacked by the ravens. It is in fact a metaphor for the new Irish State which had offered so much protection and promise and had, in Keating’s view, achieved the exact opposite by its lack of support for the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art.  This painting was lent by its then New York owner to the major Keating retrospective at the Municipal Gallery in Dublin opened by Eamon de Valera in 1963.

    It is at the online Irish Art Auction at de Veres on March 24, on view now at Kildare St. in Dublin.  There is art by  Gerard Dillon, Dan O’Neill, Peter Curling, Barbara Warren, Liam O’Neill, Kenneth Webb and Mary Swanzy.

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    RARE IRISH BANKNOTE FROM 1831 ON AUCTION AT NOONAN’S

    March 19th, 2026

    Bank of Ireland £1 note from 1831 UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    A spectacular Irish £1 note issued in 1831 in Newry, Dublin and Armagh comes up at Noonan’s auction of British and Irish banknotes in London on March 25. The specialist auctioneers say that it is a remarkable new discovery and the first note ever seen of this type, though it had been known to exist. They estimate lot 301 at £8,000-£10,000.

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