Louis Le Brocquy

 

Adam and Eve in the Garden, 1951-52
Aubusson tapestry, 140 x 275 cm
Atelier Tabard Frères et Soeurs, edition 9

Louis le Brocquy 

10 November 1916 – 25 April 2012

Today, one of Irelands greatest painters, printers, and tapestry designers passed away.

"It is remarkable that the considerable reputation acquired by Louis le Brocquy as a designer of tapestries was early on in his career based on seven small works ... yet it is held that no artist from these islands has shown a deeper understanding of this medium than Louis le Brocquy" Dawson Gallery, Dublin, 1966

"Le Brocquy's designs are among the best of their kind I have seen, not excepting those of Lurçat
Edward Sheehy, 'Paintings and Tapestries by Louis le Brocquy". The Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin Magazine (March 1952)

Garlanded Goat, 1950

Tapestry

"His decorative tapestry of a goat is the best I have seen produced by an English artist".
John Berger, The New Statesman (London, February 12, 1955)

Few artists anywhere have had as much experience in tapestry design. Along with his well-known predecessor Jean Lurçat, the artist has proved to be a master of the medium and a landmark figure in the revitalisation of this art form. His experience began in 1948, when Edinburgh Tapestry Weavers invited a number of painters working in London to design a first tapestry. His association with the medium further developed in the Fifties, upon his collaboration with the great 17th century firm Tabard Frères & Soeurs in Aubusson France. Today the artist's tapestries are woven in the same historic region by the Atelier René Duché, Meilleur Ouvrier de France. The tapestry designs include Travellers 1948, Garlanded Goat (1949-50), Allegory (1950), the Eden series (1951-52), the Inverted series (1948-99), the Tain series (1969-00), the Cúchulainn series (1973-1999), the Garden series (2000). Large-scale tapestry commissions include Brendan the Navigator (1963-64, UCD, Michael Smurfit School of Business, Dublin), The Hosting of the Táin (1969; Irish Museum of Modern Art), the Massing of the Armies (RTÉ, Dublin) and the monumental Triumph of Cúchulainn (National Gallery of Ireland, Millennium Wing).

taken from www.lebrocquy.com

 ''Through painting, tapestry and print Louis le Brocquy has provided us with individual works and collections that give the insight and response of an artist of genius to Irish history, culture and society".

An Táin

http://www.imma.ie 

 

Quotes from Louis le Brocquy

"To see is to transform. Art is a transformer".

"Contrary to a generally held view, I think that painting is not in any direct sense a means of communication or a means of self-expression. When you are painting you are trying to discover, to uncover, to reveal. I sometimes think of the activity of painting as a kind of archaeology - an archaeology of the spirit".

"Art is neither an instrument nor a convenience, but a secret logic of the imagination. It is another way of seeing, the whole sense and value of which lies in its autonomy, its distance from actuality, its otherness".

"I do not, myself, believe in artistic creation. In art as in science, I believe in discovery".