Louis le Brocquy: the Death of a Legend | Ellen Desmond
Louis Le Brocquy, despite his French sounding name, was an artist born in Dublin on November 10th 1916. In respect of Le Brocquy passing away in April of this year and with what would have been his ninety sixth birthday this month, I feel it is time somebody commemorated him in some way. Interestingly enough, Le Brocquy actually had no formal training in art and originally trained to be a chemist in Trinity College. Predominantly a painter, he also worked in sculpture, printmaking, ceramics and tapestry. A stellar example of his tapestry work can be seen hanging just inside the entrance of the National Gallery of Ireland. Le Brocquy’s work has also been represented across the globe, including at the Brussels World Fair alongside the works of Cézanne and Matisse.
Known throughout the later years of his life as the greatest living Irish artist, Le Brocquy is somehow under-represented in the art and literature world of Ireland today. The only informative study of him is that done by his wife, Anne Madden, which is both extremely expensive and difficult to come by. Though visual books of his works are available, it is still unacceptable the lack of attention he is given. This is more evident when you take into account that there are several extremely comprehensive accounts of many less successful and still-living Irish artists, all of which can be found relatively easily, and just about anywhere, even here on campus in the Glucksman Gallery shop.However, the little media coverage of Le Brocquy consistently takes into account his kind and gentle nature. A self-declared enthusiast of the classical arts, during his lifetime Le Brocquy became one of the very few Irish artists ever to witness one of their own works sell for over a million pounds sterling. Before his death he was also honoured as the first living artist to be put on display in the permanent collection of Ireland’s National Gallery in Dublin with his outstanding piece A Family, which still remains on display there today. This work is from his “Grey Period” and marked a change in his usually more colourful range of palette choice.A Family was Le Brocquy’s direct response to the threat of nuclear war, which was a very real fear for the artist in 1951. The horizontal extremes pay homage to Picasso’s cubist phase but the uniqueness of the symbolism and imagery Le Brocquy indulges us with here is one of a kind. I would urge anyone to go see this painting in the flesh, as I have rarely experienced art with such a profound immediate impact to the onlooker. With its intentional lack of perspective, this painting appears to explode out of the frame into the viewer’s space. A Family was given an award at the 1956 “Venice Biennal” and is widely acknowledged as one of the key initiators of modernism becoming an accepted style in 20th century Irish art. It is tastefully displayed in the National Gallery, not far from Yeats’ Grief, which makes a similar statement of abhorrence to war.While Le Brocquy is also highly noted for his Táin illustrations, it is perhaps his amazingly fresh and innovative Head Portraits for which he is best known. These comprise of images of famous figures, such as Bono, and are portrayed in a stunningly striking manner. Le Brocquy manages to convey the idea that he has merely splattered these faces onto canvas but when one stands a few feet away from these wonderful images, extraordinary likenesses and incomprehensible amounts of detail can be seen. Luckily for anyone interested, three of Le Brocquy’s Head Portraits, those of W. B Yeats, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce, are currently on display in the Crawford Gallery in Cork city.However, I would argue that worthy attention was not given to the display of these phenomenal works, as they are hanging in an unsuitable corner beside the Gallery Café, with the Portrait of W. B Yeats displayed at a peculiar right angle to the other two. They most definitely cannot be appreciated at their best in this location because of the bustling crowd and canary yellow coloured wall, which does little to benefit them. They still warrant a visit, but one would generally expect more attention for being some of the best works by a very recently deceased legend of Irish painting. A call for a major tribute exhibition is easily in order, to give due respect to the passing of this one of a kind artistic genius.