Irish Museum of Modern Art Has Opened Derek Jarman Retrospective

The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin has launched a major Derek Jarman exhibition, in which four decades of the British artist's work is presented. Entitled PROTEST! the show explores Jarman’s artistic practices and reflects on his life and political activism. The vast body of work presented in the retrospective includes Jarman's widely celebrated contributions to the film industry as well as showcasing his other artistic endeavours such as his wider practice as a 'painter, writer, set-designer, gardener and political activist' according to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.

PROTEST!'s opening on November 15 saw over 150 works displayed from the late artist's sprawling career. One room features the voices of Jarman’s longtime friends and collaborators, actors Tilda Swinton and Nigel Terry, as they recount Jarman's daily experiences as a gay man living with HIV. Through abstract and dreamy prose, the pair deliver haunting lines that reflect Jarman's memories of growing up as a homosexual in 1950s Britain and his subsequent experience of the AIDS crisis during the 80s and 90s. Queer culture and the wider difficulties faced by the LGBT+ community is a strong theme in the retrospective and coincides with this year being the 25th anniversary of Jarman’s death after his 1986 HIV diagnosis.

As well as the spoken word display, a series of Jarman's slogan paintings centred around the disease are shown in the retrospective. Created in the midst of his illness, the violent works feature phrases such as 'fuck me blind' and 'Aids is fun' scratched into large painted canvases. Further in the exhibition is video footage of an exhibition Jarman presented in Glasgow in 1989. The films show Jarman leading journalists around a room where two young men lay in a bed. The room, filled with homophobic headlines from tabloid newspapers and barbed wire, was showing the media's demonisation of AIDS sufferers.

Alongside works depicting Britain's AIDS crises, Jarman's many and varied collaborations are included in the retrospective. Sketchbooks, storyboards and paintings, sets Jarman created for Frederick Ashton's ballet Jazz Calendar, and Ken Russell’s The Devils are featured. As well as theatre and film, Jarman collaborated on a number of music videos with musicians such as The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys and Bob Geldof. Rounding off the varied portrait of Jarman's work is a series of pieces showing the garden he created in the 90s at the height of his illness. Producing a film The Garden and a book Derek Jarman’s Garden the work marks Jarman's move to the Kent countryside.

PROTEST! runs from November 15, 2019 – February 23, 2020, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Accompanying the exhibition is a publication on the artist entitled PROTEST! published by Thames and Hudson.