‘Scáileanna Gréine’
Joe Dunne Solo Exhibition - Ashford Gallery RHA 2001

Exhibition Review - Aidan Dunne - The Irish Times, March 13th 2001

"...Dunne has been from the first a meticulous and technically accomplished painter and draughtsman. But there has always been a hint of something more, the feeling that he actually had something to say, rather then being an efficient academic technician pure and simple. This intimation has, admittedly, been muted, and Dunne has consistently described a suburban world that could easily, if unkindly, be described as bland. It is probably true to say that the fact that he is a conservative artist in terms of his style and concerns has also militated against his being taken seriously.

His recent work sees him for the first time explicitly explore, rather than passively describe, the suburban world, an exploration that leads him into abstraction,
albeit abstraction firmly rooted in the spaces, planes, light and atmosphere of his surroundings. He remarks in a catalogue note that he feels the pictures are successful if they "touch on . . . some sense of mystery", which is exactly right, and earmarks the quality that probably counts most in the end. Strangely enough, his foray into abstraction seems to have consolidated his prowess as a realist painter, and a work like Blue Dress is a beautifully poised, classical, full-figure portrait, understated but quietly strong, a very good painting on anyone's terms.

Elsewhere, he is much preoccupied with taking various permutations of form and incorporating them in nicely poised compositions of surface pattern, always bringing things up towards the picture plane. He does this with still life arrangements à la Charles Brady, rural landscapes, and what might be called suburban landscapes. The most impressive aspect of all this is that every square centimetre of each painting has been considered, mulled over and addressed until it works. It must stand as a landmark show for him."

© Irish Times. Reproduced by kind permission of  www.irishtimes.com.