Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 9th December 2020

42 36 LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA (1916-2012) Mille Tetes B, No.1929 Aubusson tapestry, Tabard Frères et Soeurs, 180 x 230cm (71 x 90½’’) Signed and dated 1973 Edition 1/9 Le Brocquy’s journey with the medium of the woven tapestry began in 1948 when he was invited by The Edinburgh Tapestry Weavers to design one along with other artists. This experience, while introducing him to a whole new artistic medium, also left him less than satisfied and hungry for greater involvement in the entire design process. This kind of artistic control can be seen in other projects carried out by Le Brocquy such as when he collaborated with printers on illustrations for books, The Táin or The Playboy of the Western World , providing extraordinarily detailed notes on the design but also particularly on the colour tones used. Tapestry art was having somewhat of a renaissance in the twentieth century, becoming a medium, which was increasingly attractive to progressive modernist artists. French artist Jean Lucrat had pio- neered this approach in tapestry design some years earlier, developing a technique, which prioritised the material as the guiding principle for the design rather than an attempt to make the tapestry con- form to the characteristics of the painted image. Le Brocquy was drawn to Lucrat’s example, whereby he could create very detailed and colour coded templates that the weavers would follow with exact precision. He rejected the painted cartoon in favour of a full-scale linear design. This allowed him to directly indicate each transition of colour and tone in the woven fabric. He had already collaborated on numerous occasions with the workshop of Tabard Frères et Soeurs in the Aubusson region. In 1973 he resumed working on a new series based on the themes and imagery of The Táin . This resulted in the Cúchulainn tapestries, which emerged in various iterations over the following decades. Milles Tetes B (Thousand Heads) is a distinctive example of both Le Brocquy’s sus- tained interest in representing the human head and the visual effect of inverting colour and tone. The stylized heads arranged in rows, suggestive of some massing force, are distinctive, drawn with their own features and characteristics. Yet through their repeated presence across the woven surface, they blend into one another to create ‘a mass of human presence’ (Dorothy Walker, Louis Le Brocquy , Dublin, 1981, p.51). The dark austerity of the Tain’s illustrations are replaced here by vibrant colours. The shift in tone from bold primary colours in the centre to paler hues creates a dramatic effect. In this work, Le Brocquy was able to explore the interdependence of form, colour and narrative con- tent on a very large scale. Each tapestry in the series examines this harmony differently. The longer you observe it, the more visually receptive it becomes. The shifting inversion of the colours and tones creates the impression of an outline of shadowy figure, emerging from the background. As Le Brocquy remarked on this effect on the human eye, “Further to the emotional character of single and interre- lated colour, lies the magic of colour inversion. Staring fixedly at a colour or colours, the saturated eye - shifting to a white surface - precisely inverts those colours both in hue and tonally. A retinal ‘memory’ emerges inverted, an entirely new perception as contrary as night from day”. (Le Brocquy, ‘Artist ‘s Note’, exhibition catalogue Louis le Brocquy, Seven Tapestries 1948-1955 Dublin: Dawson Gallery; Bel- fast: Ulster Museum 1967) Niamh Corcoran, November 2020 € 50,000 - 80,000