The Master and the Modernist: reimagining the Blackham | Yeats collaborations.

1 – 31st July, Dundrum dlr Library; D14 VP97.

In the early 1930’s, in what was then a bold move to modernise her work, Lily Yeats (then in her mid-sixties and in declining health) and Dorothy Blackham (then in her mid-thirties and a well-established Dublin artist) collaborated on three pieces – Blackham as a designer and Lily as embroiderer, that captured notable Dublin landmarks: the Abbey Theatre and the Customs House (1932) and the GPO (1933).

Earlier this year for the first time the three pieces were exhibited together in the ‘Collaborating in Conflict: The Yeats family and the Public Arts’ exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, MA. 

The unprecedented display of these unique artworks has been the inspiration for this exhibition of contemporary works by the members of the Irish Guild of Embroiderers, that reimagine the artists’ work by reconsidering contemporary Dublin landmarks.

This is a collaboration with the Yeats Sisters Commemoration Project, who continue to find opportunities to reconnect the relevance of Lily and Elizabeth’s pioneering achievements to a modern Ireland.

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This exhibition with the support of the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Heritage & Libraries.