Louis le Brocquy paints Bono into National Gallery Portrait Collection

Press Release, 20 October 2003

-Irish Life & Permanent National Portrait Gallery opens to visitors-

The National Gallery of Ireland will today (20 October 2003), celebrate the reopening of the National Portrait Collection with the unveiling of a specially commissioned portrait of Bono, by Ireland's pre-eminent living painter, Louis le Brocquy.

The painting, entitled, 'Image of Bono', represents the fifth in a special series of portraits of leading Irish men and women, which has been commissioned for the collection with the support of Irish Life & Permanent plc. The portrait goes on display to the public in the mezzanine gallery of the Dargan Wing, from tomorrow, Tuesday, 21 October. Admission is free.

Referring to this work, Louis le Brocquy says: " In the past, I have painted an extensive series of interiorised head images of artists such as Samuel Beckett and Francis Bacon, WB Yeats and Seamus Heaney whom I see as extraordinary instances of human consciousness. In more recent years, I have made a number of similar studies of Bono, whose spirit and whose radiant energy I admire so much. But a painting destined for the National Portrait Gallery presents a different challenge; to make a recognizable image of Bono's outward appearance, while attempting to portray what I conceive to be the wavelengths of his inner dynamism."

Roy Douglas, Chairman, Irish Life & Permanent plc: "This is a magnificent portrait and we are delighted to add it to the National Portrait Collection. Few figures have made such a profound impact on this country in the last twenty-five years as Bono. As lead singer with U2, his music has inspired, provoked and enraptured a generation across the world and as a campaigner on key humanitarian issues such as debt relief for third world countries and the African AIDS crisis, he has made a profound impact on the international political stage. We are particularly honoured that Louis le Brocquy agreed to undertake this commission and we congratulate him on a wonderful achievement."

Thanking Irish Life & Permanent plc for their generous sponsorship of the portrait commissions, Raymond Keaveney, Director the National Gallery of Ireland, said that the programme had proved extraordinarily successful, and in recognition of their continuous support of the gallery, the new space would be named the Irish Life & Permanent Portrait Gallery. Mr. Keaveney said that the National Gallery was today proud to honour contemporary individuals who had made significant contributions to the cultural, social and political life of the country, placing their portraits on view with those figures from our history. He was delighted to announce that Louis le Brocquy's portrait of Bono would mark the new presentation of the National Portrait Collection.

Irish Life & Permanent Portrait Gallery
In 1884, the National Historical, and Portrait Gallery was established under the then Director, Henry Doyle (1869-92). It displayed some 50 paintings together with works on paper, principally mezzotint portraits of distinguished individuals, an area of the collection, which was to be significantly enhanced in 1887 and 1888 when the Gallery acquired a body of work at the two Chaloner Smith sales in London. The Portrait Gallery continued to be a feature of the display up until the 1970s, when it was dismantled. In the interim the collection has been enhanced by a series of acquisitions and special commissions of portraits of well-known personalities from contemporary Irish life, a project that was facilitated through the generous support of Irish Life & Permanent plc.

From Tuesday, 21 October, visitors will be able to explore a new presentation of the Gallery's Portrait Collection in the mezzanine gallery in the Dargan Wing, with some 60 painted and sculpted portraits from the sixteenth century to the present day. The display includes the splendid eighteenth-century portraits of Lord Edward and Lady Pamela Fitzgerald, and that of Constance Markievicz painted in 1899 by her future husband. Other more familiar faces on view, will be the portrait of Lady Lavery used for the design of the first Irish bank notes, the cruciform shaped portrait of Noel Browne by Robert Ballagh, and the colourful representation of sportsman, Ronnie Delany by Dublin artist, James Hanley.

The five commissions to date in the Irish Life & Permanent Portrait Series are:
-Mary and Nicholas Robinson
-Ronnie Delany
-Gay Byrne
-TK Whitaker
-Bono

Louis le Brocquy (b.1916)
'Image of Bono'
oil on canvas, 122 x 91cm
Irish Life & Permanent Portrait Series, National Gallery of Ireland, 2003

The Irish Life & Permanent Portrait Gallery is open during Gallery hours. Admission is free.

Attached are biographical notes of both artist and sitter.

Further Information: Valerie Keogh
Press & Communications Office
National Gallery of Ireland
Email press@ngi.ie

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Louis le Brocquy (b.1916)
Ireland's pre-eminent living painter, Louis le Brocquy was born in Dublin in 1916. Self-taught, he left Ireland in 1938 to study paintings in museums throughout Europe. Returning to Dublin, he became a founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943. In 1946 le Brocquy moved to London, and became prominent in the contemporary art scene. He began to exhibit internationally, winning a major prize at the Venice Biennale in 1956. In 1958, he married the Irish painter, Anne Madden and left London to work in France.

Widely acclaimed for his evocative heads of literary and artistic figures, among le Brocquy's many collaborations with Irish writers, notably Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney, he is perhaps best known for his lithographic brush drawings for Thomas Kinsella's renowned translation of the Táin in 1969, held to be the great Irish Livre d'Artiste of the twentieth century. In 1988 it was at Samuel Beckett's personal request that le Brocquy illustrated his valedictory book, Stirrings Still, and designed the set and costumes for Waiting for Godot, produced throughout the world.

Honoured with museum exhibitions in the United States, Japan, Australia, France, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Mexico, his work is represented in public collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Tate, London. In Ireland, le Brocquy's contribution to art over the past sixty-five years was celebrated in a major retrospective at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1996.

In 1962, le Brocquy was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Dublin, in 1988 by the University College of Dublin, in 1999 by the Dublin City University, and in 2001 by Queen's University, Belfast. He was made Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1975, and in 1996 Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. In 1994 he was conferred by President Mary Robinson with the title Saoi, and in 1998 received the first IMMA/Glen Dimplex award for a sustained contribution to the visual arts. He was made Officier de l'Ordre de La Couronne Belge, in 2001.

The artist lives and works in Dublin.

Bono (b.1960)
Bono is the lead singer of Irish rock group U2. U2 released their first record in April 1980, and have since sold over 100 million albums worldwide, winning 14 Grammy music awards and 6 Brit Awards. In 2001, U2 were awarded MTV's Lifetime Achievement Award and honoured at the Brits for an Outstanding Contribution to Music. U2 have supported Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the Burma Action Campaign.

Bono has used his celebrity status to highlight the crises of poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa, and to gain access to the world's most powerful decision-makers. In 1998, Bono supported the international Jubilee 2000 Drop The Debt campaign. As part of this worldwide movement, he lobbied international politicians, and the IMF and World Bank, and met many world leaders including Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder and Thabo Mbeki. In 1999, he went to Rome to join forces with Pope John Paul II to persuade the Group of Eight richest nations (G8) to launch a major debt write-off for poor countries. In 2000, he joined Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to present the world's largest petition (24 million signatures) to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, calling for further debt cancellation - to date, rich countries have promised to cancel $100 billion of the debts of the poorest countries, which means debt repayments have been cut by 40 percent. ?

In 2001, Bono helped bring together American music artists, including Destiny's Child and Puff Daddy, to record Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On?' in order to raise money and awareness to fight AIDS in Africa. At the beginning of 2002, Bono, along with Live Aid's Sir Bob Geldof, set up a network called DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) that targets rich governments to increase resources and improve their policies towards African countries. Bono spent considerable time in Washington meeting key Congressional leaders and Administration officials including George Bush. The US have recently announced two major increases in foreign aid: and extra $15 billion over 5 years specifically to fight AIDS in Africa.

In 2003 Bono was awarded the Légion d'Honneur by the French government.

Bono lives in Dublin with his wife and four children.