Ciarán Bennett sadly died on 15 February 2024 after a long illness, aged 68. He was a member of AICA since 1994 and served as President of AICA Ireland Section for two terms and AICA International Vice-President.
He spearheaded the AICA World Congress in 2009 “The Relations between Art and Science: Complicity, Criticality, Knowledge” at Dublin Castle and regularly attended AICA meetings in Paris, a city he knew and loved very much.
His art education began at Dun Laoghaire Art School (now IADT) in the late 70s, taking on further studies in in Paris, Florence and Bath. Following a stint living and working in Thailand and travelling around Asia, in 1994 he returned to Ireland and began working as an art critic. As well as freelance writing, he also served at the art critic for the Irish Architect, journal of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland from 1995-2000. During his career he also wrote for wrote for Brooklyn Rail, Artnet, Circa Art Magazine, Art Criticism, and the Irish Arts Review and several other publications.
He curated several exhibitions including shows at the National Print Museum, Solstice Arts Centre, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, often advising artists and galleries selections and installations. His exhibition at IMMA "A Vision of Modern Art in Memory of Dorothy Walker" was made in commemoration of the art critic, writer and founding IMMA Board member Dorothy Walker. He wrote for the catalogue which also includes an essay by Donald Kuspit.
He had a keen interest in the postwar inauguration of AICA which led to in his book "James Johnson Sweeney: The Poetry of Vision in the Twilight of Modernism" published in 2017. This book has made a very valuable contribution to awareness of the art politics that lay behind ROSC, modern Irish Art and AICA early years. He received the Pollock Krasner Research Fellowship for this project and spent several years researching which took his to many places including New York, Houston, and Ibiza.
He wrote essays and reviews of numerous artists who include: Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Martina Coyle, Gary Coyle, Fiona Dowling, Denis Farrell, Kathy Herbert, Cor Klassen, Brian Maguire, Paul Moss, Janet Mullareny, Cóilín Murray, Alan Phelan, Amanda Ralph, Bridget Riley, Vivienne Roche, Sean Scully, Katherine Shankey, John Noel Smith, Mario Sughi, Charles Tyrell, and many others.
Other projects include work with Suzanne Anker & Frank Gillette which led him to be keynote speaker at the conference Molecular Cuisine: The Politics of Taste at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He also appeared on an Irish language television programme called Dullamullóg as the art critic charged with assessing contestant craft workers.
As Noel Kelly said at his funeral service: "for those who really knew Ciarán, they will know of his great heart, his generosity, his complete lack of guile or deceit. Ciarán was always the genuine character. His unapologetic use of words, his incredible range of knowledge and half-remembered stories put him in direct lineage to Ireland’s greatest in terms of the use of language. And yet, he also hungered to know more, whilst maybe a “bit” dismissive about the constant repetition of trends and tropes or the lack of education and learning in the world, but his mind was always interested in knowing more. Not a superficial knowledge, but the why and where, and when it all became too much, the familiar wave of the hand, toss of the head, were signals that Ciarán was ready to move on."
Codladh sámh Ciarán.