From The Gloss
A new retrospective on the 20th-century American photographer Helen Hooker O’Malley shows her fascination with Irish people and Irish life …
The National Library of Ireland’s National Photographic Archive and the Gallery of Photography Ireland have jointly curated “A Modern Eye: Helen Hooker O’Malley’s Ireland” which is presented in two complementary exhibitions in the two Temple Bar venues. Hooker O’Malley’s frequent subjects were scenes of urban and rural daily life and portraits of artists and friends. The Director of the NLI, Dr Sandra Collins shares her insight into the formidable female artist.
Tell us a little about Helen Hooker’s background and her love of Ireland?
Helen Hooker O’Malley was born into a wealthy American family in 1905, and travelled widely throughout her life. Her first exhibition was in 1929, showing paintings she had produced during a stay in Russia, and over her lifetime Helen’s creative practice spanned painting, poetry, sculpture, and theatre and interior design.
Her fascination with Ireland began when she met Irish revolutionary and writer Ernie O’Malley in America in 1933; they fell in love and married in 1935, despite her parents’ disapproval. Although she and Ernie divorced in 1952, her love of Ireland endured, and we can see it throughout the compelling photographs of people and places across the country.