170
127 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012)
Cúchulainn IV (1975)
Tabard Frères et Soeurs Aubusson tapestry, 184 x 184cm (72 x 72”)
Signed and numbered 2/9 on the label verso
Provenance: Purchased fromTaylor Galleries, Dublin, 1977, by John P. Reihill, Deepwell, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin
The theme of the Táin, the early Irish epic translated by the poet Thomas Kinsella in 1969 and
for which le Brocquy was commissioned to provide the accompanying black brush drawings,
inspired in the artist a fresh surge of creativity in the realm of tapestry. The word ‘Táin’ means
‘hosting’ or gathering of a large crowd for a raid and provided the theme for a number of tapes-
tries designed by the artist.The surface of the tapestry is completely covered in multi-coloured,
irregular, oval heads, all with minute irregular ‘features’ and all facing the spectator. Each head
exists as a single entity and does not relate to its neighbour. There is no order, no ranking, yet
some inherent, instinctive force holds them together. In 1970 P.J. Carroll and Co. through their
architects Scott Tallon Walker commissioned the first Táin tapestry from le Brocquy for the
foyer of their Dundalk factory, this is now in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Louis le Brocquy has said “I hope these images from Táin Bó Cúailnge, transmuted into the
woven forms of tapestry, may be seen as a tribute to the poetThomas Kinsella, who inspired them
and to the devoted publisher and designer, Liam Miller, who gave their original coherence.”
“In this tapestry I have tried to produce a sort of group or mass emergence of human presence,
features uncertain - merely shadowed blobs or patches - but vaguely analogous perhaps in terms
of woven colour to be weathered, enduring stone boss-heads of Clonfert or Entremont - or of
Dysert O’Dea....” “each individual head is conscious only of the viewer vertically facing it.This I
think is the secret of their mass regard. Each head is self-contained, finally a lump of presence.
No exchange or incident takes place between their multiplied features”.
“All of the Táin tapestries were woven in Aubusson, and in them the artist has contrived a
masterly conjunction between the narrative content of the epic, his own and the ancient Celtic
concern of the head image and the visual architectural demands of a large modern wall hanging.”
We are indebted to the late Dorothy Walker, whose writings form the basis for this catalogue
entry.
€40,000 - 60,000
