Louis Le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) Presence (1959) Oil and sand on board, 76 x 63.5cm (30 x 25") Signed and dated 1959   Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin Lord & Taylor The Flint...

  Louis Le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) Presence (1959) Oil and sand on board, 76 x 63.5cm (30 x 25") Signed and dated 1959   Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin Lord & Taylor The Flint Museum, U.S.A. Private Collection   Exhibited: 1995 Summer Exhibition, The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, Cat. No. 2; where purchased by the current owner   This important work by le Brocquy is one of a series of works called 'Presence' which he carried out in the late 1950s. It was in the collection of The Flint Museum, Flint Michigan, U.S.A. until the early 1990s.   Louis le Brocquy's Presence series was inspired by a number of pivotal experiences in the late 1950s which caused the artist to abandon his earlier Family series of paintings and to move from the figurative to an almost abstract style. Despite their ethereal quality, however, the Presences are concerned with the human body. In 1956 le Brocquy saw a display of Giacometti's plaster sculptures at the Venice Biennale. The tall emaciated forms had a profound impact on the Irish artist. In addition to this le Brocquy's future wife, Anne Madden, was undergoing operations and x-rays of her spine. As a result of these events the artist produced a new series of work, the Presence or White paintings, first exhibited in the late 1950s. They are concerned with the tenuous nature of the human body both physically and metaphysically.   Ostensibly abstract, the centre of the white expanse of the painting is dominated by an extended skeletal form. The contrasts between light and dark in the work make it difficult to decipher what is real and what is shadow. Le Brocquy mixes sand and other material into the paint to build up the surface as if to create real physical form. Within the predominantly monochrome surface a myriad of colours are evident. Presence (1959) is one of the more dynamic and richly coloured examples of the series. The rhythmic forms of the skeleton are shrouded by a dark ghostlike form that seems to be at variance with the other more tangible elements of the painting. The tension between these elements mirrors that of the spirit and the body. Speaking of another Presence work, le Brocquy summarised his intention in the series. 'The body appears to be dissolved in shadow while its interior inner structure rises to the surface'.   Dr. Róisin Kennedy        

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