FRANK AUERBACH
Manchester Art Gallery
Mosley Steet - Manchester
17/5/2014 - 10/8/2014
From 17 May 2014, Manchester Art Gallery will showcase a significant exhibition of work by Frank Auerbach, one of Britain’s most celebrated living painters. Spanning the artist’s career from 1950-2005, works will be drawn from the most significant private collection of Auerbach’s work, which has been accepted in lieu of tax by HM Government from the estate of the artist’s long-standing friend, Lucian Freud. The collection has been acquired for the nation by the Arts Council England and many works will be shown publicly for the first time at Manchester Art Gallery, before the entire collection goes on display at Tate Britain from August.
Manchester Art Gallery will present over twenty of Auerbach’s most significant oil and paper works as part of this show, highlighting the artist’s distinctive style of thick impasto paintings, rough charcoal drawings and vivid, impulsive depictions of the world around him. These works, which Freud admired, collected and exhibited in his London home over many years include Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, 1962; a masterpiece from Auerbach’s oil painting series that denotes the artist’s fascination with the post-war attempts to rebuild London.
Major portraits within the show include Auerbach’s Head of EOW III 1963-64 which will showcase Auerbach’s illustrious impasto style of painting and highlight that the artist employed the same principal models throughout his career, namely his close friend Estella (Stella) West ('E.O.W.') and his wife Julia who is illustrated in his charcoal sketches. These works reveal how the familiarity Auerbach had with his subject enabled a more insightful way of painting; creating more expressive depictions of the sitter.
The works on paper displayed within the exhibition range from fine finished portraits, including the remarkable charcoal Head of Julia 1991-92, to five intimate hand-made sketches sent from Auerbach to Freud on his birthday.
The full collection of works, from which this exhibition will draw, is the largest Acceptance in Lieu case to date. After the exhibition of selected works in Manchester Art Gallery, the entire collection will be displayed at Tate Britain from 25 August - 2 November 2014.
Image: Frank Auerbach, Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, 1962
Manchester Art Gallery
Mosley Steet - Manchester
17/5/2014 - 10/8/2014
From 17 May 2014, Manchester Art Gallery will showcase a significant exhibition of work by Frank Auerbach, one of Britain’s most celebrated living painters. Spanning the artist’s career from 1950-2005, works will be drawn from the most significant private collection of Auerbach’s work, which has been accepted in lieu of tax by HM Government from the estate of the artist’s long-standing friend, Lucian Freud. The collection has been acquired for the nation by the Arts Council England and many works will be shown publicly for the first time at Manchester Art Gallery, before the entire collection goes on display at Tate Britain from August.
Manchester Art Gallery will present over twenty of Auerbach’s most significant oil and paper works as part of this show, highlighting the artist’s distinctive style of thick impasto paintings, rough charcoal drawings and vivid, impulsive depictions of the world around him. These works, which Freud admired, collected and exhibited in his London home over many years include Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, 1962; a masterpiece from Auerbach’s oil painting series that denotes the artist’s fascination with the post-war attempts to rebuild London.
Major portraits within the show include Auerbach’s Head of EOW III 1963-64 which will showcase Auerbach’s illustrious impasto style of painting and highlight that the artist employed the same principal models throughout his career, namely his close friend Estella (Stella) West ('E.O.W.') and his wife Julia who is illustrated in his charcoal sketches. These works reveal how the familiarity Auerbach had with his subject enabled a more insightful way of painting; creating more expressive depictions of the sitter.
The works on paper displayed within the exhibition range from fine finished portraits, including the remarkable charcoal Head of Julia 1991-92, to five intimate hand-made sketches sent from Auerbach to Freud on his birthday.
The full collection of works, from which this exhibition will draw, is the largest Acceptance in Lieu case to date. After the exhibition of selected works in Manchester Art Gallery, the entire collection will be displayed at Tate Britain from 25 August - 2 November 2014.
Image: Frank Auerbach, Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, 1962
