Louis le Brocquy, H.R.H.A. (b. 1916)

Louis le Brocquy says, 'To see is to transform. Art is a transformer. The hand can act as an independent being to bring about the emergence of the image. The painter must wait for this without imposing his ideas, watching intensely and critically for what may happen. I am convinced that Palaeolithic man acted in this way. He was an artist, but above all a seer. There is a brain in the hand. The hand in the cave of Pech-Merle is a personality. A handprint is a personality. A footprint is only a trace, an imprint. Why?' (see Louis le Brocquy, 'Painting and Awareness', Actes du Colloque 'Corps-Poésie-Peinture', Faculté des Lettres de Nice, Métaphores, No. 5 (Nice, 8 February 1979). Reproduced in Louis le Brocquy, 'Notes on painting and awareness', D. Walker, Louis le Brocquy, Dublin, 1981, pp. 151-52).
P. le B.