The National Gallery’s Wild Beast of Glass

The collection of 48 paintings, drawings and works in glass of the avant-garde artist Maurice Marinot has finally found itself centre stage at the National Gallery of Ireland. Marinot, the French-born “Wild Beast of Glass”, was a relentless experimentalist. Expelled from the École des Beaux-Arts for being a “dangerous non-conformist”, he first became associated with Les Fauves, or the “wild beasts” — a group of early 20th-century artists characterised by their emphasis on bold colour and vibrant abstraction, the most notable of which were Henri Matisse and André Derain. However, after a revelatory visit to the glass factory of the Viard brot…