20th century British, European and American painting
The Ulster Museum collection of 20th century British, European and American art is important, and, taken with the Irish collection of the same period, constitutes undoubtedly the major public collection of modern art in Ireland. The Times described it as "one of the most ambitious collections of modern art outside London" (19 November 1994).
The British collection is particularly representative of developments in British painting from 1900 until the 1980s. In the 1930s the Museum built up a distinguished collection of paintings by Sickert, Steer, Matthew Smith, Paul and John Nash, and major works by Stanley Spencer, who frequently paid visits to Belfast.
In the 1960s a major collection of post war art was begun, including examples by William Scott (from Enniskillen), Francis Bacon, Alan Davie, Terry Frost, Ivon Hitchens, Roger Hilton and Victor Pasmore. This was followed by the work of artists of the op and pop generation, including Bridget Riley, Patrick Caulfield, Allen Jones, Bernard Cohen, John Hoyland and Kenneth Martin.
Image: Allen Jones (b.1937), Automatic Shift (1969). Copyright Allen Jones
Sixties Art and Fashion (Exhibition Factsheet)
American Painting from the 1950s and 1960s (Exhibition Factsheet)