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Paintings 1939 - 2006
 
1 / FIRST WORKS ---- -(c.1939-1945) 4 / 'WHITE PERIOD' PRESENCES (c.1956-1966) 7 / LIFE & STILL LIFE SERIES --(1981-1998)-
2 / 'TINKER' PERIOD- (c.1945-1948) 5 / ANCESTRAL HEADS SERIES --(c.1964-1975) 8 / THE PROCESSION SERIES--- (1984-1992)
3 / 'GREY PERIOD' ----(c.1951-1954) 6 / PORTRAIT HEADS SERIES -----(c.1975-2005) 9 / IRISH LANDSCAPE SERIES --(1987-1994))----
    10 / HUMAN IMAGE SERIES -------(1996-2005)
    11 / HOMAGE SERIES---------------- (2005-2006)
 

Louis le Brocquy's inquiry into the human condition is seminal to his motivation as a painter. This underlying concern has informed a number of significant developments. According to Francis Bacon: 'Le Brocquy belongs to a category of artists who have always existed - obsessed by figuration outside and on the other side of illustration - who are aware of the vast and potent possibilities of inventing ways by which fact and appearance can be reconjugated'. The Early Works (1939-45) including Southern Window (1939; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane) and A Picnic (1940; Irish Museum of Modern Art), establish the artist's ongoing preoccupation with the inward isolation of the individual. The Traveller paintings (1946-50) including Tinkers Resting (1946; Tate Collection), develop concerns relating to their marginal lives. Later paintings of the period, including Travelling Woman with Newspaper (1947-48; Smurfit Art Collection), indicate a wider social concern. The Grey Period, (1951-56) including A Family (1951; National Gallery of Ireland), and Child in a Yard (1954; Collection Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin), contemplate a stark circumstance in the aftermath of World War II. Le Brocquy's painting undergo a further development in 1956 with the White Period, (1956-66) including Woman (1959; Tate Collection) and Isolated Being (1962; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane), that radicalise the human figure as isolated presences, and the ensuing Head Series, (1964-1996) including Head of an Irish Martyr (1967; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.) and Stele: Hommage à Entremont (1968; Fondation Maeght, St Paul, France) that kindle his interest in the Celtic head culture. Initially anonymous these images later depict literary figures such as W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney and Federico Garcia Lorca, including Study Towards an Image of Shakespeare (1982; Guggenheim Museum, New York) and Image Ulterieure de Picasso (1983; Picasso Museum, Antibes), individuals whom the artist perceives as avatars of human consciousness. In recent years le Brocquy has undertaken a major series of works entitled Processions in an impressive series of oil paintings, watercolours and lithographs (1984-92) including Children in a Wood I (1988; Irish Museum of Modern Art). Since 1996, he has embarked upon Human Images, further developing his earlier preoccupation with the Presence series. In 2005, the artist has painted a mouving series entitled 'Homages to his Masters', including, Velazquez, Goya, Cézanne and his hero Manet encountered for the fist tine some seventy years ago.