GALLERY TALK: Thursday 11 November, 4.00pm, East Wing Galleries, IMMA.

International Modernism: Contemporary interpretations.

Francis Halsall will present a gallery based talk on the exhibition The Moderns. The exhibition provides the framework in which to survey aesthetic and historical theories associated with modernism in an international context. Particular works in the show will be highlighted as exemplars of different strands within international modernism. Further discussion will be given to how the ideas and styles of modernism continue to inform the contemporary practice of artists, curators and theorists. 

Dr. Francis Halsall is lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Art Theory at National College of Art and Design, Dublin where he is coordinator of Art in the Contemporary World www.acw.ie. He has a MA and PhD in Art History from Glasgow University and is currently working towards a PhD in Philosophy at UCD. He is a member the editorial board of the Journal of Visual Art Practice and the inaugural committee for the gallery at NCAD. His recent publications include the books, Systems of Art, (2008) (foreword, Prof. Kitty Zijlmans), and the edited collections Rediscovering Aesthetics, (with Julia Jansen & Tony O’Connor, (2009) ) and Aesthetic Practices and Critical Communities: Art, Politics, Friendship (with Julia Jansen and Sinead Murphy (forthcoming); and the articles: “Chaos, Fractals and the Pedagogical Challenge of Jackson Pollock’s ‘All-Over’ Paintings,’” The Journal of Aesthetic Education (2009); “Strategic Amnesia (on art history in Ireland in the 21st century)”, The Irish Review, (Winter, 2008); “Niklas Luhmann,” in Costello & Vickery, (eds.) Art: Key Contemporary Thinkers, (Berg Publishing, Jan. 2007), “5 Points on Pentagonism” a catalogue essay for Gerard Caris, (forthcoming.)

Booking is essential and can be made on at www.imma.ie/talksandlectures