WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART MONDAY 27 MAY 2019 AT 6PM

75 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) MILLES TÊTES (THOUSANDS OF HEADS) C Aubusson Tapestry, Atelier Tabard Frères et Soeurs, France signed and titled in French on weaver’s label on reverse 69.50 by 69in. (176.5 by 175.3cm) Provenance: Collection of Sir Anthony O’Reilly; Purchased from Sir Anthony by the present owner Literature: A Secret Quest, Solomon Gallery Publications, 2005, p. 158 (illustrated) Louis le Brocquy’s first ventures into tapestry design occurred in the late 1940s as part of an innovative programme involving a range of progressive Modernist, London-based painters invited to develop designs for a medium that experienced something of a renaissance during the twentieth century. This initiative had been pioneered some years earlier by French artist, Jean Lurçat who felt that the principles of design should be based on the particular qualities of the medium itself, rather than attempt to emulate the characteristics of painting. Further, Lurçat advocated that such designs should be free of ambiguity, enabling the weaver to carry them out precisely according to the artist’s instructions, without necessity of interpretation. These ideas struck a chord with Louis le Brocquy, who developed an independent aesthetic response. Following his initial impressive ventures into the field, he developed his seminal illustrations for Thomas Kinsella’s celebrated rendition of The Táin, images that were in turn effectively reinterpreted as black-and-white tapestry designs. Developing from the narratives and imagery of The Táin, the Cúchulainn series of tapestries emerged in various iterations carried out at intervals over the following decades up until the end of the millennium. Milles Têtes C is a distinctive but representative example. Tapestry is most effective on a generous scale and, like several of the counterparts in this series, this work is 1.8m square, drawing on proportions that were a feature of much twentieth century art. Similarly also, this work comprises a series of stylised heads, arranged in ordered rows suggestive of an army, and reflecting the artist’s seminal Armies Massing (1969), from The Táin. However, the Cúchulainn series embodies a more formalised composition - to use his own words: a kind of mosaic or honeycomb. (1) In addition, The Táin’s austerity was replaced with vibrant colour and subtle tonal variations, as this example demonstrates. Each of this series explores colour and tonal harmonies differently. Those in Milles Têtes C range from sombre browns and golds, through an array of intermediate shades before the glowing central sphere. Each of the heads is distinctive, to indicate an array of individuals, each with their own character, but all apparently committed in their organised formation to the same cause or event. He has expressed how helpful he found Lurçat’s perceptions regarding the potential of the medium and the organisation of form and colour. He recognised too the value of the superlative weaving skills at Aubusson that he availed of for most of his tapestries. Le Brocquy related the revitalisation of tapestry to a renewed preoccupation with the two-dimensional surface, and how it prompted a “conceptual or inward-looking way of seeing and expressing reality.” Recalling a visit by Lurçat to his London flat, he recounted that the French artist referred to “age-old symbols” and how“[here], on an unfolding surface, the sun … once more proclaim[s] with pagan fervour the potency of natural life …”. The present tapestry, Milles Têtes C, suggests something of that potent brilliance, but suggests also the more mundane reflections of sunlight on ordinary surfaces, prompting them to ponder “the woven interdependence of all things”. (2) Dr Yvonne Scott, April 2019 Footnotes: 1. See Cúchulainn tapestries (c.1973-99), www.anne-madden.com 2. Louis le Brocquy, ‘Thoughts on our time and Jean Lurçat’, in Louis le Brocquy; Aubusson Tapestries, London: 2001. €40,000-€60,000 (£34,480-£51,720 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 75