Tinkers Resting 1946

Editor: Here we have Louis le Brocquy’s "Tinkers Resting," held at the Tate. I find the figures rather angular and their environment quite harsh. What do you see in the way this work was constructed? Curator: I see an invocation of the lives of itinerant workers, a community often marginalized. Consider the materials—the visible brushstrokes, the somewhat rough application of paint on the support—as if Le Brocquy sought to mirror the lives of his subjects through his very means of production. How does the surface quality strike you? Editor: I hadn't considered the roughness as intentional, mirroring the tinkers' lives. It makes me think about how art can elevate the everyday. Curator: Exactly. By presenting the laboring class, Le Brocquy questions what—and who—is worthy of representation.