Louis Le Brocquy

Louis Le Brocquy is considered one of Ireland’s foremost painters both nationally and internationally. Le Brocquy is best known for his series of Head themes that he has drawn upon since the 1960s, examining individual personality and broader concepts of identity through long series of semi-abstracted portraits.  Many of his portraits are of Irish writers and his interest in literature in Shakespeare Head, Image of Seamus Heaney and Shadows, which documents Joyces's Dublin, is evident.

In 1943 he became a founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in Dublin. He represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 1956, where he won the Premio Acquisito Internationale. In 1998 he received the IMMA Glen Dimplex Artists Award for a sustained contribution to the visual arts in Ireland. He was elected Saoi by members of Aosdána in 1992 and was honored with the Freedom of Dublin City in 2007. The Irish Museum of Modern Art exhibited a retrospective of le Brocquy's work in 1996, and in 2006 presented a display of seven emblematic works to celebrate the artist's 90th year.

Courtesy of Irish Museum of Modern Art