The Artefacts Project
Lorcan Walshe’s involvement with the art of ancient Ireland began as a search for artistic roots…
Through his choice of subject matter Lorcan has raised a number of important issues that are of concern to the artist and art-historian alike. A search for roots is a starting point, that leads quickly to other issues such as the status of the art object, transference, empowerment, significance, identity, transcendence, relevance, patronage, and the relationship between the ancient and the modern.
Dr. Eamonn P. Kelly, Keeper of Irish Antiquities, National Museum of Ireland.
These paintings and drawings respond to ancient Irish artefacts -croziers, bells, shrines - held in the National Museum of Ireland. It is a reconnection with Ireland’s indigenous visual culture by means of contemporary painting and drawing. Works from this series have been exhibited at the National Museum and the Hunt Museum in Limerick.
Clonmacnoise Bell & Gartan Bell each 76x76cm oil on canvas The Artefacts Project at The National Museum of Ireland 2007/8 and The Hunt Museum Limerick 2022
Lorcan Walshe Studio 2022
In the seventies, I was in the National College of Art. At the time, half
the staff in the painting department were English. I can remember
wishing that the Irish had a tradition of painting like the English and the
French and the Italians, but we seemed to be working from other people’s
traditions. One day, one of the tutors said to me: “The Irish are a visually
illiterate race.” I can remember being disturbed by that remark. I had a book
on Celtic art in the house where I was living, so I started to go to the National
Museum and look at artefacts there, and I started to see that precolonial
Ireland was far from visually illiterate.
Shrine of the Miosach 168x183 cm oil on canvas (Hunt Museum Artefacts Project exhibition 2023)
Three 8th Century Bells pencils on Fabriano paper each 84x59cm (Artefacts Project at the Hunt Museum)
River Lane Crozier 84x59cm pencils on paper (collection Hunt Museum)
Crozier with Grey Background I 168x106cm oil on canvas
Lorcan Walshe Studio 2006
Clonmacnoise Crozier Study 84x59cm pencils on paper
Crozier with Grey Background II 168x106cm oil on canvas
Shrine Drawings - The Artefacts Project at the Hunt Museum
Shrine of the Cathach (detail) pencils on paper
Shrine of the Miosach (detail) pencils on paper
Shrine of the Miosach 24 x28 oil on copper