Promenade

Artist Patrick Ireland (American (b. Ireland), 1928 - 2022)

Date2002

Mediumink on paper

Dimensionsimage: 21 1/2 in. × 36 in. (54.6 × 91.4 cm)
sheet: 26 × 40 in. (66 × 101.6 cm)

Credit LineArt Auction Fund

Exhibition History"Large Format Works on Paper," KIA Galleries 3&4 (June 27 - Sept. 2, 2003). Label TextCreated in 2002, this detailed drawing illustrates the assembly of "Promenade," a mixed-media work at the KIA installed by the artist four years earlier, in 1998. Work on ceiling panels at the KIA in 2000 necessitated disassembly of the ropes. KIA staff members were able to rehang the ropes precisely as before, but requested a detailed drawing from the artist as a guide and precaution for the future. Both title and structure of the installation for the KIA lobby command the viewer to promenade—to step slowly and purposefully forward, then side-to-side. This work references the power of ancient monuments, like ziggurats and labyrinths. Their physical structures dictate our movement through a space. The structure of "Promenade" manipulates the viewer’s movement and experience of a work of art in a museum space. As we are drawn to view the work from different positions, we change the aspect of a static installation. In a 1998 letter prior to installation, he wrote, “There is, I hope, a sense of ascension, of (conceptually, at least) climbing a mountain, as it were, while experiencing the mysterious but undeniable satisfaction of things clicking into place (which they rarely do in life) sequentially.” The experience he describes can only be activated by our own movement combined with viewing. "Promenade" is a rare extant example of a series of largely temporary installations which so perfectly embody the contributions of this visual and conceptual artist. 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.

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