Comments on: These marks in printer's ink

These marks in printer's ink

Abiezer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:04:59 -0800

The Táin lithographs In 1967 Louis le Brocquy was commissioned to illustrate Thomas Kinsella's translation of the great Irish prose epic the Táin Bó Cuailnge. The resulting collaborative volume is widely acknowledged as the great Irish Livre d'Artiste of the twentieth century; Le Brocquy's "brush drawings merged seamlessly with the text; stark, fluent images, they expressed with great economy of means an epic breadth, evoking the movement of vast masses of people. Individual participants in the drama were also pulled into close focus."

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:44:24 -0800

Slight excess of great Irishness in my post text there; but everyone involved is Irish and it is great. Ahem.

By: peacay

peacay — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:53:59 -0800

Thanks Abiezer. Wonderful, intriguing, primitive, surreal. "It is as shadows thrown by the text that they derive their substance."

By: paperpete

paperpete — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:38:04 -0800

I didn't know about this before. Thanks - nice post!

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:59:21 -0800

I see Wake Forest University's Z. Smith Reynolds Library has a digital archive of Dolmen Press printing blocks. Liam Miller's vision was of course also integral to the creation of the Kinsella/Le Brocquy Táin, not to mention so many other fine works.

By: The Michael The

The Michael The — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:26:24 -0800

Buy the book. I actually have a copy of this and have loved those illustrations for years but never knew that they were so acclaimed and famous. Great post.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:35:21 -0800

I had to get a copy of this book 19 years ago for a college course. It's one of the ones I kept because I was awed.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:46:29 -0800

The paintings are great, too. Neat post, Abiezer, thanks.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:09:23 -0800

Most excellent post, Abiezer, thank you - this from your first link says it for me: "In an idiom that can take in its stride hints from oriental art, cave painting, Picasso and other sources he has created powerfully and economically an entire mythico-legendary world.'"

By: Football Bat

Football Bat — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:18:00 -0800

Amen. Amazing work from both translator and artist. My favorite part: when Finn lets an old crone have the right of way on a desperately small mountain pass by hanging off the cliff by his toes, only to find she's the mother of two men he killed. She tries to stomp his toes, but he jumps up and beheads her. Staggeringly bizarre stuff.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:28:43 -0800

Staggeringly bizarre stuff. Ooh, God, yes -- like Cuchullain's warp-spasm. (For those unfamiliar -- it's a sort of fit that the hero Cuchullain underwent when he was about to really kick the battle up a notch. Think like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk, but infinitely more surreal.)

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:18:50 -0800

If we are going down the track of Tain inspired art, The Decemberists song of the same name has a music video that has similar lithographic / shadow feel to it. I remember reading a forum post by the guy working on it, and I think the animation style was inspired by these lithrographs.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:42:31 -0800

Add mine to the chorus of thanks for this post! > Cuchullain's warp-spasm. We have been lucky with the Táin. Little Cu's transformation is very much there in Cecile O'Rahilly's--excuse me, Sisile Ní Rathaille's--scholarly edition and translation, which I read as a fantasy-engorged teenager (that it, I read the Once upon a time it befell Ailill and Medb translation and stared wistfully at the Fecht n-óen do Ailill & do Meidb edition) many years before stumbling across Kinsella's rendering. Way too often, very old things with surreal incidents like this are clearly just too much for the translators, who go "It can't mean what it says. It must be an extended metaphor for something else. Yeah, metaphor, that's the ticket." Or they assume it will be too much for their audience. And so they proceed to render the something else, to the great loss of the text. Not to mention the loss to the poor reader who can't read the Odyssey directly in Homeric Greek or the Mabinogion in Welsh or the Ramayana in Sanscrit or whatever. Pamela Reis made this point in a brief letter to the NY Times which has stuck with me for twenty-odd years. "The example of Edmund Wilson who learned ancient Hebrew at the age of 50 and wrote a book about the Dead Sea Scrolls inspired me to start studying that language 2 years ago, as my 50th birthday became imminent. When people ask why I bother to laboriously work my way through the Old Testament when there are good translations, I respond: "Yes, but your sentence says God became angry. And mine says The flames were coming out of God's nose."

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:52:52 -0800

Fascinating images. Amazing how like calligraphy they are, seemingly so simple and yet very subtly communicative. Amazingly forceful with such economy! Louis le Brocquy describes his paintings as "shadows thrown by the text". That seems so apt. This one is a mosaic of miniature portraits that look almost like thumbprints, both personal and impersonal, conveying the vastness and diversity of humankind, almost hinting at the pattern of DNA. I love his Human Image series, his portraits in oils and watercolors. Had seen his work before in my childhood but had never really known much about the artist. Your excellent post prompted a wonderful exploration of his work. Thanks Abiezer.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:21:16 -0800

Great post. Like The Michael The, I've had the book for years (I bought it in Dublin in 1975, and had it signed by Kinsella) but had no idea the illustrations were so famous. Now I want to reread it (and dig out my beat-up copy of the original Irish, which I was studying back in those days).

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:51:16 -0800

Never heard of any of this before, I'm so glad I clicked on this post! Thanks!

By: zoinks

zoinks — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:15:57 -0800

WARPSPASM!

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:32:29 -0800

Great post! Thanks, Abiezer.

By: fcummins

fcummins — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:56:44 -0800

Post needs a link to Horselips "Dearag Doom"

By: fcummins

fcummins — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:04:35 -0800

Dearg Doom. Damn.