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1942-43. Founding of Irish Exhibition of Living Art

 

Establishes studio, 13 Merrion Row, Dublin (winter 1942). Anne Madden remarks: 'The studio was the realisation of a dream, found after an intense search. To Louis it meant more than a convenient circumstance in which to paint. It was the opening of a space vibrant with possibility. Near the north-east corner of St Stephen's Green, it became the doorstep to a seasonal world through which he could wander.'35 Paints Bright Contemplation (1942; Stephen's Green), Vesperal (Fittzwilliam Mews), The Blue Door (1942; Heytesbury Lane). The growing hostility towards Modernism, however, by an entrenched reactionary establishment becomes increasingly pronounced in a country isolated by war. The rejection of Spanish Shawl (1941), by the Royal Hibernian Academy in April 1942 becomes a cause célèbre in Dublin. The event will eventually lead to the organisation of an alternative agency for showing contemporary art in the following year. Dr. S. B. Kennedy notes: 'In art historical terms this is one of the most seminal works in twentieth-century Irish art ... To a contemporary eye le Brocquy's work of the early 1940's may appear largely academic in treatment, but at the time it was seen as unacceptably avant-garde by the art establishment of the Academy ... Spanish Shawl, with its emphasis on the isolation of the individual, even in the company of others, encapsulates the enduring subject-matter of le Brocquy's art.'36 Modelled by his brother Noël, his brother in law Stanley Stewart, and Hazel Malcolm Douglas, at 51 Kenilworth Square, Dublin (the family home), the Spanish Shawl, a white impressionistic painting with echoes of Edouard Manet's Eva Gonzalès (1870; NationalGallery, London. Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917) is envisaged as a metaphor for a woman wrapped in thought, revealing the interiorised nature of le Brocquy's vision. The artist publicly appeals the rejection of George Rouault's Christ and the Soldier (1930), presented by the Friends of the National Collections to the Municipal Gallery (October 1942): 'We, Dubliners, have rejected Rouault, the greatest living Catholic painter of France, from our gallery on a dual charge of blasphemy and incompetence. This small, earnest work of a deeply spiritual man we have deemed unfit to appear in our gallery, unworthy to hang beside Millais' flowery show of trivial sentiment or Boldini's facile display of sensual vulgarity. This city once lost a collection of pictures, representing much of the greatest work of this last century, primarily because the immense significance of the gift was ignored until it was too late. One day the Lane pictures will be returned to us. Meanwhile we have been deprived ofthem; our painters go hungry for them ... And it is my hope that Mr Keating will not have the "rest from Rouault" for which he asks until that name has been cleared of the insult which he has helped to place upon it.'37 Commenting on the narrow-mindedness of the period, the artist recalls: 'The cool rather foggy climate in which the visual arts were immersed ... In those dark days contemporary art, the art of our time, was scarcely recognised much less understood ... It was difficult at the time, peering through our provincial mist, to see what if any vital art lay hidden behind and beyond the settled hulk of academic values. Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, dual beacons on the same headland, could not be wholly ignored. In a clearing in the general fog a minimal interest was shown in Jack Yeats, whose great nostalgic works were at least widely misunderstood. Here and there a modernist torch was raised - but generally our prospects were as obscure as those of the art we professed.'38 Turns to mural decoration commissioned by his friend the architect Michael Scott (1905-1989). This provides the artist with his first opportunity to address Irish Mythology (Cúchulainn, Queen Medb and Luain, Palace Bar, Tullamore, not extant). The numerous collaborations between le Brocquy and Scott, a pioneer of Modernist architecture in Ireland, will extend well beyond the war years, encompassing applied arts, industrial design, theatre design and stained glass, including Madonna della Strada (1956), mosaic made in Murano for side chapel, St. Ignatius Church, Salthill. Galway. The artist remarks: 'Above all Michael provided a vital convergent centre, an interdisciplinary communion of understanding for those of us who would understand. Perhaps the essence of that understanding was the perception that art, be it architecture or theatre, poetry or painting, was not a means, a convenience or a decoration. It was an essential human principle, larger than any of us, a thing in itself.'39 Paints Variety Rehearsal: Olympia (1942; Ulster Museum) entered into In Theatre Street, Contemporary Picture Galleries (November 1942). Designs sets and costumes for Don Jupiter, adapted by the artist's mother, Sybil le Brocquy from Giraudoux' Amphitryon 38 (Olympia Theatre, Dublin, September 1942). Designs sets for Jimmy O'Dea's Laughter at Eight (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, August 1943), later producing programme illustrations for Hilton Edwards' Punchbowl (Gate Theatre, Dublin, December 1944) and W. B. Yeats' The Countess Catheleen, The Lyric Theatre Company (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, June 1944). First studio exhibition held with his sister the sculptor Melanie le Brocquy (December 1942): Paintings, thirty-six works, including Southern Window (1939), A Picnic (1941), Threshing (1942), The Triumph of the Moon (1942). The Irish Times reports: 'It has already been noticed in these columns that with "Variety Rehersal" Louis le Brocquy is working towards a freer and more personal approach than his work of a bare twelve months ago - as represented here by, for instance "Girl in White" - might have suggested. But even his earlier, more derivative work, such as "Negro," with its echo of Manet, or the lovely "Girl in Grey," which in some passages recalls Goya, shows that the young artist already knew the difference between adaptation and mere translation, and has always had a feeling for beautiful handling, for what in painting is called "quality".'40 Paints Young Woman with Iris (1943), modelled by BeatriceCambell, a young war widow from Belfast. The elegant anatomical distortions, conferring a sense of dignity to the sitter, are inspired by Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), and Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806), who's 'graphic architecture' le Brocquy admires as did so many nineteenth and twentieth century artists including Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920). Earnán O'Malley writes in Horizon Magazine: 'Through simplification le Brocquy learned economy of means and the use of suggestion. His handling of broader masses was replaced by an interest in planes. His colour became more subdued as a study of form led to a new sense of its organization and a different feeling for line.'41 In 1943, le Brocquy's work emerges with a renewed significance in the modernist Classic Theme II: The Kiss (1943). Further to oriental graphism, the artist looks to the 'visual upheaval' of Cézanne (1839-1906), and Picasso (1881-1973). Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith observes: 'More fundamental, however, to le Brocquy's vision of the world is his sense of the ultimate impossibility of one human being's absolute empathy with another, the impossibility of a fusion between two individuals. As he hasrecently stated, 'my own perception of the ultimate aloneness of the individual has nothing to do with the experience of loneliness, but rather with his or her indivisibility.'42 The outright rejection of le Brocquy's work alongside all Modernists by the Royal Hibernian Academy in April 1943, is the catalyst for the foundation of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Anne Madden recounts: 'Both he and his mother perceived the need to establish an effective forum for contemporary art in Dublin. She it was who diplomatically arranged the circumstances that made it possible. Her friend Joseph O'Neill, the writer and permanent head of the Department of Education, was sympathetic and agreed to lend the exhibition hall of the National College of Art, Kildare Street, conditional on the adherence of certain official patrons. The liberal president of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dermot O'Brian, actively sponsored Sybil's proposed Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA), becoming one of four patrons. The others were the Chancellor of Dublin University, the President of UCD and the Director of the National Gallery, Dr George Furlong. Every arrangement with the department was effected by Louis under Sybil's guidance and it was he who then approached for their collaboration and membership his fellow artists, Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, Norah McGuinness, Ralph Cusack, Margaret Clarke, Elizabeth Curran, Laurence Campbell and Fr. Jack Hanlon. On 12 May, in one of the early meetings in Louis' studio at 13 Merrion Row, Manie Jellett was elected Chairwoman; Louis' mother accepted the position of honorary secretary. All subsequent meetings took place in that studio.'43 Avoiding the restrictions of a salon des refusés, the exhibition proposes a survey of Modern and Academic art, establishing itself as an event of national importance. According to the art historian Dorothy Walker: 'The Living Art Exhibition was a major force in Irish art until the mid-seventies, always attracting the most serious artists both to exhibit and to act on its organizing committee. It provided an open platform for artists of all persuasions, and after the war it initiated a policy of bringing in and exhibiting major contemporary art from abroad, selecting one country each year. Until the first ROSC exhibition in 1967, the Living Art was the only occasion in post-war Ireland when young Irish artists, art students and the Irish public could experience directly the art of their contemporaries in Europe and America.'44 Enters Spanish Shawl (1941), Image of Chaos (1942; not extant), and Classic Theme II, The Kiss (1943) into the inaugural IELA (September 1943). The artist will henceforth regularly exhibit at the 'Living Art' and irregularly at the RHA.

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35 Anne Madden le Brocquy, Louis le Brocquy: A Painter Seeing his Way (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994), p. 47-48.
36 S. B. Kennedy, 'Louis le Brocquy. The Spanish Shawl', Great Irish Artists From Lavery to Le Brocquy (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1997) p. 132.
37 Louis le Brocquy, letter to The Irish Times (October 12, 1942).
38 Anne Madden le Brocquy, Louis le Brocquy: A Painter Seeing his Way (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994), p. 50.
39 Louis le Brocquy, Michael Scott, an appreciation .
40 The Irish Times, 'Paintings and Sculpture' (December 14, 1942).
41 Earnán O'Malley, 'Louis le Brocquy', Horizon, Vol. XIV, No. 79 (London, July 1946). Reproduced in Dorothy Walker, Louis le Brocquy (Dublin: Ward River Press 1981; London: Hodder & Stoughton 1982) p. 71.
42 Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, 'The Human Image Paintings of Louis le Brocquy', Notes, 2003.
43 Anne Madden le Brocquy, Louis le Brocquy: A Painter Seeing his Way (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994), p. 60.
44 Dorothy Walker, Modern Art in Ireland (Dublin: The Lilliput Press Ltd, 1997), p. 25.

 

 

 

 

Spanish Shawl, 1941
oil on shantung silk
mounted on hardboard, 120 x 90 cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classic Theme II. The Kiss, 1943
oil on gesso-primed hardboard, 67 x 47 cm