Irish Exhibition of Living Art

The Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA) was a yearly exhibition of Irish abstract expressionism and avant-garde Irish art that was started in 1943 by Mainie Jellett.

During World War II, Ireland remained mostly uninvolved in the war that swept through most the rest of Europe, known only as "the Emergency" in Ireland. Taking a "neutral" stance in the war, Ireland did not engage directly in the war on either side and declined to make any kind of established allegiance to the Axis or Allied powers. As a result, Ireland experienced a period of isolation from the rest of the Western world, with few Irishmen travelling abroad and few foreigners travelling to Ireland. This period of isolation set in motion a period of criticism and questioning of the fledgling country's national identity and ideals, with various factions unhappy with the status quo in the island nation. Some of the primary concerns for those unsatisfied with the state of the Ireland at the time included a government unconcerned with the republican ideals the nation was created with, widespread poverty in Ireland, and a general inability for the nation to be a major player on the world stage capable of defending itself. With these concerns and isolation, the Irish people sought to question the direction Ireland was headed in. And in this war period and the time that immediately followed, Ireland and its artists also sought to question what constituted "Irish art" and how that would impact Irish identity.

Art in Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s still primarily consisted of traditional representational art. Championed by the Royal Hibernian Academy and the National College of Art, this traditionalist art remained the favored style of visual artistic creation following the Emergency period. Many Irish artists rejected the established institutions and sought philosophical inspiration from other fields, particularly that of literature. Although it was not until the late 1930s that the character of Irish art was to be seriously challenged as Irish artists began seeking an Irish artistic identity. With artists like Mainie Jellett leading the way, artists of Ireland, who more frequently received no formal education due to some of the institutions more restrictive policies, found an outlet to challenge the traditionalist movements in Ireland through organizations like the IELA.

Prior to the opening of the IELA, only one major exhibition took place each year in Dublin, which was the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy. The RHA, and other major art institutions in Ireland at this time, supported art that accurately portrayed reality. And while the established art forums favored traditional representational art, there was some push back from groups of artists in favor of modernist art. One of the most well-known of these prior to the IELA was known as the White Stag Group which was formed in the late 1930s. The White Stag Group, formed by Kenneth Hall and Basil Rakoczi, had middle-class English roots that eventually took hold in Dublin and the rest of Ireland. It wasn't until organizations like the IELA and White Stag Group came about that non-traditional Irish art had a means of being displayed in a way that was accessible and popular.

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