Frank Auerbach

One of Britain's most preeminent post-war artists, Frank Auerbach (b.1931) is celebrated for his landscapes and cityscapes of his local Camden area along with his intimate portraits of a select group of close friends and relatives, who have sat for him regularly over numerous years. Auerbach was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931, arriving in England in 1939. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art and has remained in London ever since. Auerbach’s first exhibition was held at London's Beaux Arts Gallery in 1956; his works have subsequently become some of the most internationally collected of any living artist, both privately and by public institutions.

Auerbach's paintings, drawings, and prints reveal an intense and laborious observation of the subject; his portraits are frequently executed in close proximity to his subject and are often completed in silence. Characteristically rendered with a sense of immediacy through employment of loose brushstrokes and graphic lines, Auerbach’s intimate knowledge not only of his sitter’s physiognomy, but also their temperament and personality are key to his success. He makes his mark with authority and finality, arriving at the very essence of his figures. Auerbach’s signature thick black lines and the rigorous mark-making he employs, give his sitters a profoundly striking, enigmatically energetic quality. Equally adept in any medium, Auerbach has a strong appreciation for the practice of printmaking; his body of etchings, aquatints and drypoints, are exemplary in showcasing his ability to achieve a visual equivalent for the tactile surface and essential nature of his paintings in these linear prints. While Auerbach has a deep reverence for the print medium, he has completed fewer than 40 editions throughout his six-decade long career.

Frank Auerbach first exhibited with Marlborough in 1965. His work can be found in public collections worldwide including the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Aberdeen City, Scotland; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; British Museum, London, England; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Frissiras Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, England; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Museo de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa; Royal College of Art, London, England; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland; Tate Britain, London, England; and the Southampton Art Gallery, Sheffield, England.