Hugh Lane Gallery — Attraction in Dublin

This art gallery has been strengthened, architecturally and in terms of of what it presents over the last few decades. It is now a very strong institution, much more dynamic than hitherto. Full transparency- I confess to loathing the thought of the Bacon studio, which was one of the biggest interventions in the HLG recent history, and refuse to visit it ( but knock yourselves out) and I would walk over glass to see Harry Clarke's 'Eve of St Agnes', so those are my own prejudices. The foundational collections - Hugh Lane's disputed bequest and the 20th century additions, by citizens such as Sarah Purser, who took it upon themselves to expose early 20th century Dublin to the best if modern art, remain stalwarts of their kind, not all A-listers, but some very memorable pieces and well worth seeing. However, the Gallery is bigging up its modern-European and Irish temporary/ loan exhibitions and this is where it punches above its weight. The current Patrick Graham exhibition is a magnificent example - hard to credit its the first of its kind for him. It reveals his development as an artist in minute detail. The video of the interview with him is a must see, to understand the unique biographical and intellectual context. It should be ( maybe it is?) available on the gallery's website, because it deserves more careful attention than might be possible during a time-limited visit. Summary -...

I was at this gallery with my wife yesterday and I will never go back. The security staff are extremely rude, especially a small woman. We were in one of the exhibition rooms when my wife called me to take a closer look at Andy's painting so I could see the dot technique he used in screen printing. When suddenly this lady shouted at my wife as if we were two offenders, she was completely rude and disrespectful to my wife, telling me not to approach the painting. Normally, when you cannot get close to a painting, an area is delimited for viewing, and this painting did not have any barriers, and at no time did we touch or damage the painting. In the biggest museums in the world, this is how it works. After that we were followed through all the rooms in the gallery, and were approached again by two other security guards who did not identify themselves, asking what had happened and treating us as if we were criminals once again. Long story short. What's the point of bringing a large art exhibition to a gallery that doesn't have employees who know how to treat the public. Invest in employee training and invest in signage, as nowhere in the gallery is there a sign not to go near it. Disappointing, I paid 30 euros for two tickets and was still treated like a criminal. This gallery is not in the slightest condition to host large...

Visited the recent Andy Warhol exhibition which was fantastic and laid out beautifully. However one of the security staff was rude and aggressive. Whilst viewing the screenprint "Portraits of an Artist" we were reading out the art note beside the art and pointing out the names on it. The woman sitting beside the screenprint came over and told us to move away from the art note and not to touch it. I explained we weren't touching the screenprint and were reading/pointing to the art note beside it. She was extremely rude. We moved onto the next room and heard her coming up to other visitors and acting the same way to them too. Again we could see that visitors were not touching the artwork and were pointing to the art note beside it. She doesn't appear to be trained on how galleries work with guests being able to read/point to the art notes and should be moved to an area where she is not interacting with visitors as she really let the gallery down.

We also visited the cafe which had some lovely food and drink items. Unfortunately they were low on food options which I'm assuming was due to the popularity of the exhibition. We enjoyed the exhibition but that experience with a rude staff...