GIBSON BEQUEST SUB-COMMITTEE SPECIAL MEETING
POST-IMPRESSIONISM
Lecture by George Atkinson
‘A lecture dealing with a well-considered analysis of the more extreme tendencies in recent modern art [Post-Impressionism], was delivered by Mr. G. Atkinson R.H.A. at the School of Art. He dealt with the characteristics of preceding [art] forms in order to establish a connection with present activities and to show whether these activities were merely isolated eccentricities or abnormalities that might be disregarded as wholly transitory and negligible. …It was the belief in many quarters that the modern tendencies appearing in art were due to the abnormal and disintegrating conditions arising out of the [First World] war. …There was no doubt that the war did much to accentuate the note of violence and the vividness apparent in some of its aspects, but the war could not be the originating cause, as the seeds of the movement …were sown during the latter yeas of the nineteenth century’
[Extract from Cork Examiner, 14 November 1923, p4]
Atkinson’s lecture was the last in a series of public lectures organised by Cork School of Art during 1923 which included its own teaching staff:
Monday 20 November / Thursday 30 November 1922
Thursday 16 November / Saturday 18 November 1922
Thursday 9 November / Tuesday 31 October 1922
11 July / 7 August / 11 August / 12 August 1922
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