On View
On viewObject number1999.25
Promenade
Artist
Patrick Ireland
(American (b. Ireland), 1928 - 2022)
Date1998
Mediumacrylic paint and rope
DimensionsOverall: 16 × 18 × 10 ft. (487.7 × 548.6 × 304.8 cm)
Credit LineArt Auction Fund
Exhibition History"Art and the American Experience," KIA (Sept. 13 - Dec. 6, 1998).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).Label TextBoth title and structure of this installation command us to promenade—to step slowly and purposefully forward, then side-to-side. "Promenade" references the power of ancient monuments, like stepped pyramids and labyrinths. Their physical structures dictate our movement through a space. The structure of this work and the artist's other “rope drawings” similarly manipulate the viewer’s movement and experience of a work of art in a museum space.
Three horizontal ropes bracket the space in front of each painted rectangle. Approaching the work from a frontal perspective rewards the viewer with the illusion of the rope lines rising and perfectly outlining each corresponding, diminishing rectangle, in succession. Walking from side to side provides a view of the ropes that restores dimension to this minimalist, aerial monument.
"Promenade" was commissioned specifically for the KIA’s lobby. It is a rare extant example of a series of largely temporary installations.
Brian O'Doherty, an Irish-born conceptual artist, writer, critic, and teacher, created the pseudonym "Patrick Ireland" as a protest against the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1972. He determined to sign the name of Patrick Ireland to his artwork "until the British military is removed from Northern Ireland and all citizens are given their civil rights." After the 2007 political resolutions in Northern Ireland, O'Doherty laid "Patrick Ireland" to rest in 2008.
