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Head and Horizon
Head and Horizon

Head and Horizon

Artist (1916 - 2012)
Date1960
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions114.3 x 146 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the Contemporary Irish Art Society, 1966. © The Estate of Louis le Brocquy.
Object number1257
DescriptionIn 2005, Louis le Brocquy explained that "when I began to paint this work I had no such image in mind. Vaguely I envisaged a big head form in space. As the painting progressed it gradually assumed a disturbing aspect. In recent years I was tempted to replace the word Horizon by William Blake's ' Urizen ', the embodiment of Isacc Newton's laws of physics, fiercely rejected by Blake in favour of his own world of art and imagination. Yet the great physicist, Erwin Schroedinger, believed that both art and science are conceived by the selfsame faculty of the imagination. I agree with Schroedinger, but nevertheless I feel bound to ask myself whether Blake's fearful distrust of rational science might not finally be justified in face of the danger of uncontrolled nuclear fission to our historic culture and to our very lives.
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