Frank Auerbach: Portraits of London

Installation shot of Frank Auerbach: Portraits of London © Frank Auerbach, Courtesy Frankie Rossi Art Projects. Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates, London

By MICHAEL KLEIN December 17, 2024

I first became familiar with Auerbach’s work visiting his drawing show in 1977 at Bernard Jacobs Gallery on 57th St. in New York City. I was taken with the abstract linear structures in the works - powerful and analytic of his subjects at the same time. In the '80s his career grew and his reputation became more significant after representing Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1986. This exhibition at Offer Waterman presents a series of monumental canvasses all of which are views of his home London.” Beginning in 1959, these paintings follow the development of the city as it rebuilds in the post war period, emerging in the 21st century as a vibrant global metropolis.”

Having visited London many many times since the 60s, I myself have see the city grow and change from a quiet urban town to a 24 hour city like New York - just cleaner and more polite. Most notable is the painter’s dramatic charges of color akin to a great de Kooning - bold and determined in their appearance ultimately. Auerbach is an expressionist sensing the power of the brush and the power of thick paint.

From the catalogue's forward:

Auerbach’s work encompasses a much broader range of locations. Although the heartbeat of his output has centred around his Camden Town studio, he has also portrayed well-known sites across London, including Oxford Street, St Paul’s, the Royal Festival Hall, the Shell Building, Regents Park, as well as St Pancras and Euston – vital arteries that connect the city. Over his career, Auerbach has created hundreds of paintings that explore the city’s evolving landscape with unparalleled depth and intensity. This extensive body of work has redefined the artistic representation of London, offering a fresh and enduring contribution to art history.

The delight of a green lush landscape; the drama of a construction site; the density of a city street, all transcribed by precise brushstrokes bringing form and color to the highly structured abstract compositions. Nothing is out of place, all is contained planned and specific to the view at hand. Auerbach’s brilliant invention is his ability to translate the seemingly familiar cityscape into a remarkable array of bravura and fierce colors. What I have always admired in Auerbach’s work is both its intensity and its assuredness. Nothing is painted without planning or thought yet the manner of painting is such that one thinks he has moved fast, but instead he has labored hard to get the color, texture, density just right. I can't help but compare him to his American painter counterpart Wayne Thiebaud, who also focused on themes of countryside and urban life. Thiebaud, like Auerbach, is a master or color and form.

Installation shot of Frank Auerbach: Portraits of London © Frank Auerbach, Courtesy Frankie Rossi Art Projects. Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates, London

The London show opens with a work from 1959 and continues over the next five decades. Some works are somber, almost monochromatic and muted in tone like Oxford St. Building Site 1 from 1960. Then by the end of that decade color seemingly explodes as in Footballers-Regent Park, 1969, or Primrose Hill, Hot Summer Evening, 1974–75. As if inspired by the canvases of the Fauves, color remains key to each and every work. Auerbach continues the tradition of English landscape painting from Constable to Turner and then adds the modernist twist of personal interpretation and expression. These in many ways are love letters to the city that saved him protected him and served him as both model and audience.

It is a pity the exhibition did not travel because it is a great tribute to one of Europe’s great artists, as well as a pictorial study of the growth change and life of one of Europe’s major capitols. Lastly it is a great example of what an artist can be. WM