Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach is a preeminent British painter and draughtsman of the School of London, celebrated for his intensely worked, heavily impastoed portraits and urban landscapes. Born in Berlin, he arrived in Britain in 1939 as a child refugee and has spent his entire artistic career depicting a small, familiar circle of sitters and the streets around his Camden Town studio. His rigorous, daily practice and commitment to painting from direct observation have established him as a towering figure in post-war figurative art.

Early life and education

Born in Berlin to Max Auerbach, a lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Burchardt, an art student, his early life was disrupted by the rise of the Nazi Party. In 1939, at the age of seven, he was sent to England on the Kindertransport; his parents later perished in the Holocaust. He attended Bunce Court School in Kent, an institution for refugee children, where his artistic talent was encouraged. After initially studying acting, he enrolled at Saint Martin's School of Art in 1948, where he was taught by David Bomberg, a pivotal influence who emphasized the structural essence of a subject. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955, alongside peers like Leon Kossoff.

Artistic career and style

Establishing a studio in Mornington Crescent, London, he embarked on a lifelong project of painting a limited number of people and places with relentless focus. His early work, such as the celebrated Head of E.O.W., is characterized by an extraordinary build-up of impasto, creating almost sculptural surfaces. Throughout the 1960s and beyond, while the paint application became somewhat less dense, his method remained one of constant reworking, often scraping away the day's effort to begin anew. His primary subjects include longtime sitters like Juliet Yardley Mills (J.Y.M.) and Stella West (E.O.W.), and landscapes such as the building sites near Primrose Hill and the view from his studio. This obsessive re-engagement aligns him with the core tenets of the School of London, a group that included his close friends Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

Major works and exhibitions

Significant early paintings include the monumental Building Site, Euston series from the 1950s. His first solo exhibition was held at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London in 1956. Major retrospectives have been staged at institutions including the Hayward Gallery (1978), the Venice Biennale where he represented Great Britain and won the Golden Lion (1986), the Royal Academy of Arts (2001), and Tate Britain (2015). His work is held in major collections worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate collection.

Critical reception and legacy

Initially met with some bewilderment due to the extreme physicality of his paint, his reputation grew steadily, cemented by critical support from writers like David Sylvester and Robert Hughes. He is now universally regarded as one of the most important painters of his generation, a bridge between the tradition of Rembrandt and the existential concerns of modern art. His influence is seen in the work of numerous contemporary figurative painters. Honors include his appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 and to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2015. The 2015 exhibition at Tate Britain confirmed his status as a national artistic treasure.

Personal life

He has lived an intensely private and disciplined life, centered almost entirely on his work in London. He married fellow artist Julia Wolstenholme in 1958; they have one son, Jake Auerbach, who became a filmmaker. He has maintained a decades-long professional relationship with his primary art dealer, Marlborough Fine Art. Known for his formidable work ethic, he continues to paint daily in the same Camden Town studio he has occupied since the 1950s.

Category:1931 births Category:20th-century British painters Category:21st-century British painters Category:School of London Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:English people of German-Jewish descent Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art Category:Kindertransport refugees