Louis le Brocquy, H.R.H.A.

Within the context of the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, le Brocquy's Ancestral Head series that he had developed in the preceding decade took on a new significance.  Having been inspired by examples of Polynesian heads that he first saw at the Musée de l'homme in Paris in 1964, his focus on a single head had originally grown from the concept of encapsulating the spirit of humanity in one object (see also lot 196). With the outbreak of civil war in 1969, this single head came to represent the terrified, helpless individual in the face of aggression and provided the artist's own solemn commentary on the universal nature of human suffering.

The introduction of the open mouth and its stark, black tones in contrast to the luminosity of the white background, struck a new intensity.  le Brocquy later explained that this new pose was 'not as a sort of silent scream, but rather as an opening into the dark space of the interior being' (le Brocquy, 2002, quoted in National Gallery of Ireland, Louis le Brocquy Portrait Heads, 4 November 2006 - 14 January 2007, p.59). It was precisely this 'dark' quality that was both cause and consequence of anguish during the 1970s in Northern Ireland and indeed, in all times of war.