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Lucian Freud (Part 2)

200% Meets — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:53:14 +0000

The mesmerizing portrait series of the curvaceous Sue Tilley (aka ‘Big Sue’) was a continuation of Freud’s fascination with flesh. The artist did remark, though, “not wanting to over indulge his predilection towards people of unusual or strange proportions”.

I wasn’t aiming to over indulge my appetite for Lucian Freud exhibitions, but it happened that I visited three shows of his work in one day, in London.

The tour started in Mayfair at Blain Southern Gallery where ‘Lucian Freud Drawings’ are being presented. The exhibition, curated by Freud’s biographer, William Feavor, consists of 108 works on paper, ranging from Pencil to Etchings and from Charcoal to Watercolour.

For Freud, not only was every painting a portrait, every painting was essentially a drawing. The artist said “I very much prided myself on my drawing” and was known for, what the art historian and critic, Martin Gayford, describes as, his “omnivorous” gaze as he tried to capture the individuality of his sitters. In his self-portrait, ‘Man at Night’, the viewer can fully experience that gaze.

It’s an ink drawing from his linear period in which there is meticulous attention to the detail of the artist’s hair and a beautiful play of shadows on the large collar of his sweater. In this work, the artist bears a striking similarity to the American singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett, but with a difference – Freud’s gaze is not as disconsolate as the singer’s, but very self-aware.

The exhibition also features drawings of dead monkeys, chicken carcasses, portraits of Francis Bacon, a smoked copper plate of the head of Jeremy King, and studies of his female sitters, including Celia Paul and his first wife Kitty Garman. ‘Ill in Paris’ is a gripping etching of his former spouse lying in bed. We see only her face as the rest of the body is covered by sheets. Their marriage was renownedly troubled, which is depicted in her wide eyes, which display a look of terror as she stares at a rose with thorns. If eyes are a mirror to the soul then this intimate exhibition demonstrates Freud’s skill of capturing the inner states of his sitters (and himself) in an awe-struck and breathtaking manner.

Next stop was ‘Lucian Freud: Studio Life’ at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert. Here are 21 intimate photographs made by David Dawson, Freud’s assistant since 1991, that depict life in the artist’s studio. There is a tender and loving picture of Freud with the model Kate Moss, one of his sitters, lying in each other’s arms in bed.

Another picture, ‘Falling Over’, looks like a film still wherein Freud walks by a naked model sitting on the studio floor, seemingly ignoring her. In another picture she has a subordinated pose as she clamps herself to Freud’s leg. Sabina Donnelly, one of his sitters, commented in ‘Painted Life’, an insightful documentary on the artist’s life: “The way he dealt with me in the beginning; ‘you’re an animal and that’s how you’re going to be treated’. He wanted it to be a sexual relationship. That’s the deal almost and I just wasn’t into it”.

Watching ‘Falling Over’, the picture triggers the imagination as to how the sexual element complicated the relationships Freud had with his female sitters, and whether tensions were created in the studio.

The last stop was for a guided tour at the National Portrait Gallery, which is hosting ‘Lucian Freud Portraits’. There I met Martin Gayford, who spent seven months with the late artist, as he was the sitter for Freud’s portrait ‘Man with a Blue Scarf’. Gayford wrote a wonderful book about the experience and, whilst viewing the exhibition, I discussed with the author what Freud’s work does for him on a personal, emotional level and, in particular, his own portrait made by Freud, which is included in the exhibition.

An extensive report of that exchange will be posted in the week of 9 April.

Written by Thierry Somers

Picture: ‘Falling Over’, © David Dawson, courtesy of Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert

‘Lucian Freud Drawings’, Blain Southern, until 5 April 2012

‘Lucian Freud: Studio Life’ Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert until 2 March 2012

‘Lucian Freud Portraits’, National Portrait Gallery, until 27 May 2012

Lucian Freud (Part 1)

200% Meets — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:40:08 +0000

Just around the corner of the National Portrait Gallery in London is a shop with a triggering slogan above their entrance: ‘Let’s fill this town with artists’ – an art material supplier called Cass Art. In February some galleries thought ‘Let’s fill this town with Lucian Freud’ as three galleries programmed an exhibition on the late artist’s work.

First of all there is the ‘Lucian Freud Portraits’ show at the National Portrait Gallery, which coincides with ‘Lucian Freud: Studio Life’ – a series of photographs by David Dawson exhibited at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert gallery. Dawson was Freud’s assistant and he recorded the daily goings on in the studio, offering glimpses of portrait sittings and paintings in progress. Blain Southern (Mayfair) presents ‘Lucian Freud Drawings’, a show consisting of more than 100 drawings made by the artist encompassing more than 7o years of his oeuvre.

Also, Christie’s will have an auction in February of Freud’s work: ‘The Printer’s Proof: Etchings by Lucian Freud from the Studio Prints archive’ that comprises 44 lots. Sotheby’s evening auction of Contemporary Art will include five drawings by the late artist.

In this post some of Freud’s work, which can be seen at the Christie’s viewing that aptly demonstrates what a friend of the artist, Bruce Bernard, wrote about his work: “a deepened sense – far beyond the scope of a photograph or any other medium – of how certain human beings looked and felt in the second half of the Twentieth Century.”

Also: One of Freud’s models, Martin Gayford, gave us a private tour to the exhibition Lucian Freud ‘Portrait’ at the National Portrait Gallery

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The Life of Lucian Freud

Yumi Goto — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

When British painter Lucian Freud died in July 2011, TIME’s art critic Richard Lacayo wrote that Freud “proved with a bang the continuing vitality of the figurative tradition in art.” A prodigious realist painter, who many considered one of the greatest British artists of his generation, Freud began his career using sharp, tight lines. In the 1950s, he set aside his thin brushes for thicker, hog’s-bristle brushes that Lacayo wrote “pushed pigment across the canvas in rich, thick flourishes.”

Freud painted dozens of nudes and loved subjects with copious amounts of flesh. He took long periods to complete portraits and required his subjects to commit incredible amounts of time to the process. In 2007, the Telegraph chronicled Freud’s painting of art handler Rita Kirby, a process that took 16 months and required Kirby to pose for him seven nights a week on top of her day job.

A new exhibition at London’s Pallant House Gallery features photographs by David Dawson, who was Freud’s model and studio assistant for 20 years. The show features some of Freud’s key paintings alongside Dawson’s photographs of the artist at work in his studio. In addition to photographs of the painting process, Dawson captured intimate moments of Freud’s life, including the application of shaving cream with one of his large brushes and cuddling Kate Moss in bed.

What emerges is a portrait of an artist who took painstaking care to capture intimate details in his paintings where the point of completion was different for each one. “Freud’s criterion is that he feels he’s finished when he gets the impression he’s working on somebody else’s painting,” Martin Gayford wrote in the Telegraph in 2007. Freud often looked inward. His 2005 self-portrait—one of many he did in his lifetime—is one of his most recognized paintings. But perhaps the most complete portrait of Freud will emerge after his death in pictures from Dawson’s lens, instead of the artist’s brush.

David Dawson: Working with Lucian Freud is on view at the Pallant House Gallery through May 20. An exhibition of photographs by David Dawson will be available for sale at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert through March 2.

Nate Rawlings is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @naterawlings.