Lot 111 Louis le Brocquy

Louis Le Brocquy HRHA 1916-2012 DISTANT IMAGE Oil on canvas, 57 1/2'' x 45'' (146 x 114.2cm), signed and dated 1970 verso. In the late 60's and early 70's, Irish art was going through a pivotal change, and Louis Le Brocquy was an integral part of this changing landscape. In the early 1960's Louis le Brocquy was going through a difficult time, much like a writer who has experienced 'writers block'. In 1964, he visited the Musée de l'Homme, where he saw ancestral Polynesian clay skull heads with cowrie shells for eyes. These heads were similar to the Celtic head, the embodiment of the human being, which sparked an interest in Celtic art and culture unleashing a flood of ideas and conjuring up the artist's vivid sense of loneliness of the Paleolithic man, lacking any known past and therefore any conception of his future. In 1969, Northern Ireland was rocked by intense political and sectarian rioting which developed into the'' Troubles.'' Le Brocquy's terrified heads of the early 70's express this horror with a hand turned palm outwards ordering a halt to this sustained war Executed in 1970, ''Distant image'' with others of similar themes ''Northern Image, 1971''(private collection) depict the anguish and suffering of the people in Northern Ireland. In ''Distant Image'', the effect of a face emerging slowly in the distance within two delineated squares evokes different emotions from each viewer. In the peering head, dappled red and blue pigment in the outstretched hand and cheekbones add drama to the floating image. The ghostly head is a human form with it's flickering of flesh colour, isolated in a cloudy substance, eyes tight shut, mouth open aghast, as if suspended, perhaps trapped, perhaps blinded by a watery mist. The viewer waits for the mist to pass, for the face to change to a warmer skin tone, for the palm to turn and beckon us in a welcoming gesture, and in doing so, perhaps the image will submerge complete with eyes wide open, mouth smiling. In 1981, Dorothy Walker wrote a biography of the artist, and Le Brocquy spoke about his head series ''For over fifteen years I have tried to draw from the depths of paper, or from the white canvas, a human face. As I have remarked, this quiet activity has little to do with communication, or with self-expression for that matter. It aims rather to make visible, a lurking image, to identify, to name some trace or aspect of reality…''(quoted by Dorothy Walker, a Biography, 1981 published by Ward River Press, p.146) There is no doubt that this is a major work by one of Ireland's most distinguished artists.