Louis le Brocquy (born 10 November 1916) is an Irish painter born in Dublin. His work has received many accolades in a career that spans seventy years of creative practice. In 1956, he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, winning the 'Premio Acquisito Internationale'(a once-off award meaning it was acquired by the Nestle Corporation) with A Family (National Gallery of Ireland),[1] subsequently included in the historic exhibition Fifty Years of Modern Art Brussels, World Fair 1958.[2] The same year he married the Irish painter Anne Madden and left London to work in the French Midi.
Le Brocquy is widely acclaimed for his evocative "Portrait ‘Heads" of literary figures and fellow artists, which include William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and his friends Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon and Seamus Heaney, in recent years le Brocquy's early "Tinker" subjects and Grey period "Family" paintings, have attracted attention on the international marketplace placing le Brocquy within a very select group of British and Irish artists whose works have commanded prices in excess of £1 million during their lifetimes that include Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Frank Auerbach, and Francis Bacon.[3]
The artist's work is represented in numerous public collections from the Guggenheim, New York to the Tate Modern, London. In Ireland, he is honoured as the first and only living painter to be included in the Permanent Irish Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.[4]
Notes
1. ^ Louis le Brocquy represented Ireland at the 1956 Venice Biennale alongside the sculptor Hilary Heron. His painting A Family was awarded the Premio Acquisito Internationale, and was subsequently included in the exhibition Mostra dei Premiatialla XXVIII Biennale, Messina, 1956.
2. ^ The exhibition "Cinquante Ans d'Art Moderne" was an ambitious attempt to trace and categorise the development of painting and sculpture from Cézanne and Rodin to date (World Fair, Brussels, 1958)
3. ^ The painting Tinker Woman with Newspaper (1947-48) set a world auction record for an Irish living artist, Sotheby's, Irish Sale, London, May 2000. The price (Stg£1.15m) places le Brocquy within a very select group of British and Irish artists whose works have commanded prices in excess of £1 million during their lifetimes. http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/dept/DepartmentGlobal.jsp?dept_id=157
4. ^ The painting A Family was presented as a gift to the Gallery by businessman, collector, and Chair of the Board of the National Gallery of Ireland, Lochlann Quinn, in 2001, using section 1003 of the Taxes Consolidation Act on donations of objects of historical and cultural pre-eminence (1997). He had purchased it for Stg£1.7million. Dr. Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch, Curator of Irish Art, National Gallery of Ireland, has observed: 'Presented as a gift in 2001 to the National Gallery, A Family is rightly recognized as a seminal painting in the history of 20th-century Irish art. It is not only an important transitional work in the artist's oeuvre but one anticipating modernism as an everyday style in Irish art. All of this is implicitly acknowledged in its being on display to the public. To date, the exception to the policy of only displaying work by dead artists in the Gallery is the continuous acquisition of portraits by contemporary artists for the National Portrait Collection. Le Brocquy is the only living artist to have a work on show as part of the permanent collection.' Louis le Brocquy's A Family : 'An unwholesome and satanic distortion of natural beauty', CIRCA Art Magazine, 2002. (Quote 'An unwholesome and satanic distortion of natural beauty', The Irish Times, letter from "Verdad" of Co. Dublin, 6 March 1952).
Monographs
* Juncosa, Enriqué, Louis le Brocquy. The Head Image, IMMA Series (Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2006), with a contribution by Louis le Brocquy ‘The Human Head, Notes on painting and awareness’, 48 pp., 16 plates. ISBN 8881586169
* Le Brocquy, Pierre, ed., Louis le Brocquy, The Head Image, (Kinsale: Gandon Editions 1996), with contributions by Prof. George Morgan ‘An interview with Louis le Brocquy’; Michael Peppiatt ‘An interview with Louis le Brocquy’ (1979), [French - German trans.] 184 pp., 80 plates. ISBN 0946641587
* Madden le Brocquy, Anne, Louis le Brocquy, A Painter Seeing his Way (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994), 317 pp., 118 duotones. ISBN 0717121801
* Morgan, George, Louis le Brocquy, The Irish Landscape (Dublin: Gandon Editions, 1992), with contributions by Louis le Brocquy ‘Artist’s Note’; Prof. George Morgan ‘Watercolour Landscape Painting - An interview with Louis le Brocquy’, [French - German trans.] 100 pp., 40 plates. including special edition. Limited to 250 numbered copies, signed and numbered by the artist. Bound in dark grey cloth, black morocco spine, stamped in silver, housed in publisher’s matching slip-case, Kenny’s Bindery, Galway. ISBN 0946641293
* Morgan, George, Louis le Brocquy, Procession (Kinsale: Gandon Editions, 1994), contributions by Prof. George Morgan ‘An interview with Louis le Brocquy’, [French - German trans.] 65 pp., 28 plates. ISBN 0946641447
* Walker, Dorothy, Louis le Brocquy (Dublin: Ward River Press, 1981; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1982), with contributions by John Russell; Dorothy Walker; Earnán O’Malley; le Brocquy ‘A Painter’s Notes on his Irishness’, ‘Notes on Painting and Awareness’; Jacques Dupin ‘The Paintings of 1964 - 1966’; Claude Esteban ‘Archaeology of the Face: Images of Lorca’; Seamus Heaney ‘Louis le Brocquy’s heads’. 167 pp., 140 plates. ISBN 090708513X
Catalogues (selected)
* London: Gimpel Fils, Louis le Brocquy, Watercolours, May 20 - June 14, 1947. Text by Denys Sutton.
* Dublin: The Victor Waddington Galleries, Paintings and Tapestries by Louis le Brocquy, December 1951
* Los Angeles: Esther Robles Gallery, Louis le Brocquy, May 23 - June 20, 1960.
* Zürich: Galerie Leinhard, Louis le Brocquy, January 1961. Text by Robert Melville [French trans.].
* London: Gimpel Fils, Louis le Brocquy, September 12 - October 10, 1961. Text by Herbert Read.
* Dublin: Municipal Gallery of Modern Art [Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon], Louis le Brocquy, A Retrospective Selection of Oil Paintings 1939 - 1966, November 8 - December 11, 1966. Texts by Francis Bacon; Anne Crookshank ‘Louis le Brocquy’; Jacques Dupin ‘The Paintings of 1964 - 1966’ [French trans.].
* Belfast: Ulster Museum, Louis le Brocquy, A Retrospective Selection of Oil Paintings 1939 - 1966, December 19 - January 1, 1967. ASIN: B0006CH5G4
* Zürich: Gimpel & Hanover Galerie, Louis le Brocquy, Bilder 1967 - 1968, January 12 - February 12, 1969. Texts by Anne Crookshank, Jacques Dupin, Herbert Read, Robert Melville [German].
* New York: Gimpel Weitzenhoffer, Louis le Brocquy, April 27 - May 15, 1971.
* St. Paul: Fondation Maeght, Louis le Brocquy, March 9 - April 8, 1973. Texts by Claude Esteban ‘Histoire Calcinée’; Jacques Dupin ‘Louis le Brocquy’ [French].
* London: Gimpel Fils Gallery, Louis le Brocquy, October 1–26, 1974. Text by John Montague ‘The Later le Brocquy’ [including Italian trans.]. ASIN: B0007AJR34
* Dublin: Dawson Gallery, Louis le Brocquy, Studies Towards an Image of W.B. Yeats, November 26 - December 13, 1975. Text by le Brocquy ‘Studies Towards an Image of W.B. Yeats’.
* Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Louis le Brocquy, A la Recherche de W.B. Yeats. Cent Portraits Imaginaires, October 15 - November 28, 1976. Texts by Jacques Lassaigne; John Montague ‘Les visages de Yeats’; le Brocquy ‘A la recherche de Yeats’.
* Genoa: Galleria d’Arte San Marco dei Giustiniani, Genova, Louis le Brocquy, Studies Towards an Image of James Joyce, November 12 - December 7, 1977. Texts by le Brocquy ‘Studies towards an Image of James Joyce’; John Montague ‘Jawseyes’ [including Italian trans.]. ASIN: B0007BIC1G
* New York: Gimpel Weitzenhoffer, Louis le Brocquy, Studies Towards an Image of James Joyce, September - October 1978.
* Montreal: Waddington Galleries, Louis le Brocquy, Studies Towards an Image of James Joyce, November 1978.
* Barcelona: Galeria Maeght, Louis le Brocquy, 88 Studies Towards an Image of Federico García Lorca, October 1978. Text by Claude Esteban ‘Arqueologia del rostro’ [Spanish - French].
* Paris: Galerie Jeanne-Bucher, Louis le Brocquy, Images de W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Federico García Lorca, Auguste Strindberg, Francis Bacon, November 27 - December 27, 1979. Text by Michael Peppiatt ‘Louis le Brocquy’ [French]. ISBN 2855620031
* Albany: New York State Museum, Louis le Brocquy and the Celtic Head Image, September 26 - November 29, 1981. Texts by Kevin M. Cahill; Proinsias MacCana ‘The Cult of Heads’; Anne Crookshank ‘Louis le Brocquy’. ASIN: B000PT8ZJE
* Zürich: Gimpel-Hanover Galerie, Louis le Brocquy, études vers une image de William Shakespeare, January 14 - February 19, 1983. ISBN 2855620120
* Charleroi, Belgium: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Louis le Brocquy, October 23 - November 28, 1982. Texts by Serge Faucherau ‘La Peinture de Louis le Brocquy’; Proinsias MacCana ‘Le culte des têtes’.
* Melbourne: Westpac Gallery [Per National Gallery of Victoria], Louis le Brocquy, Images, 1975–1987, May - June 1988.
* Antibes: Musée Picasso, Louis le Brocquy, Images, 1975–1988, July 1 - September 15, 1989. Texts by Danièle Giraudy, Michael Gibson, John Montague, Bernard Noël, Robert Melville, Seamus Heaney, Richard Kearney [French].
* Kamakura, Japan: Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa, Louis le Brocquy, Images Single and Multiple, 1957–1990, January 5 - February 3, 1991. Texts by Brendan Kennelly ‘A Peering Boy’; Dorothy Walker ‘Images, Single and Multiple 1957 - 1990’; Seamus Heaney ‘Holding the Eye’; John Russell ‘Louis le Brocquy’; Tadayasu Sakai ‘Notes for a Discussion of Louis le Brocquy’ [English/Japanese].
* Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Louis le Brocquy, Paintings 1939 - 1996, October 16, 1996 - February 16, 1997. Texts by Declan McGonagal; Alistair Smith ‘Louis le Brocquy: On the Spiritual in Art’. ISBN 1873654464
* London: Agnew’s, Louis le Brocquy, Aubusson Tapestries, May 3–29, 2001. Preface by Mark Adams. Texts by le Brocquy ‘Artist’s Notes’; Seamus Heaney ‘le Brocquy’s Táin’; Dorothy Walker ‘Le Brocquy’s Tapestries’.
* Cork: Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Louis le Brocquy, Procession, October 10 - November 15, 2003. Text by Peter Murray ‘Eros and Thanatos, Louis le Brocquy’s Procession paintings’.
* Limerick: The Hunt Museum, Louis le Brocquy Allegory and Legend, June - September 2006. Text by Yvonne Scott ‘Allegory and Legend’. ISBN 0952092255
* Paris: Galerie Jeanne-Bucher, Louis le Brocquy, Radiance, ‘Retrospective à l’occasion de son 90ème anniversaire’, October 12 - November 10, 2006. Texts by Jean-François Jaeger and Louis le Brocquy, ‘Notes on my painting’.
* London: Gimpel Fils, Louis le Brocquy. Homage to his Masters, November 24 -January 13, 2007. Text by James Hamilton, ‘Ireland’s Prospero of Painting: Celebrating the Sixty Year Partnership between Louis le Brocquy and Gimpel Fils’. ISBN 1899421099
* Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, Louis le Brocquy, Portrait Heads: ‘A celebration of the artist’s 90th birthday’, November 4 - January 13, 2007. Texts by Colm Tóibín ‘Louis le Brocquy, A Portrait of the Artist as an Alchemist’; Dr. Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch ‘“Behind the Billowing Curtain of the Face”. Louis le Brocquy’s Portrait Heads’; Pierre le Brocquy ‘Chronology: The Head Series’. ASIN: B001X644OI
* Dublin, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Louis le Brocquy and his Masters. Early Heroes, Later Homage, 14 January - 30 March 2007. Texts by Barbara Dawson 'Unfailing Eye', Louis le Brocquy 'Artist's Note', Mick Wilson 'To look, and then to look again, once more', Pierre le Brocquy 'Chronology: First Works'. ISBN 1901702243
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