Joyce in Art

Joyce in Art accompanied the exhibition of the same title (at the RHA in Dublin), curated by the author for 16 June 2004, the centenary of Bloomsday. It is the first historical account of visual art inspired by James Joyce. At once a comprehensive and selective study, it focuses on the most original, provocative and best-informed artists who took an interest in Joyce.

With over 200 reproductions in colour and black and white, of artists as diverse as Man Ray, Brancusi, Eisenstein, Matisse, Motherwell, Scully, Beuys, Christo, Bacon, Hamilton, Cage, le Brocquy, Cooke and others, this sumptuous and scholarly volume will be a necessary acquisition for all interested in modern literature and the contemporary arts.

Every major art movement since the 1920s is admirably represented in the book from Expressionism to the present multi-faceted artistic landscape. Protagonists of these movements are joined by lesser-known contemporaries from around the world with their exciting, relevant work. All the featured artists have in common their passion for Joyce – or their intense occupation with a writer they found to be an obstacle and even an irritation. Joyce’s literary innovations – from the epiphanies and stylistic multiplicity of Ulysses, to the employment of portmanteau words in Finnegans Wake – have all proved highly interesting to visual artists who are free to rework Joyce’s fascinating motifs and fruitful strategies into their own media.

The book will interest scholars of Joyce, art historians and anybody studying interdisciplinary phenomena, word and image relationships, the workings of artistic inspiration and Irish subject matter.

Envoi: James Elkins.

Design: Ecke Bonk.