Self-portrait, Reflection, 2002
Oil on canvas
In this self-portrait, Freud gives as much attention to the background as to his face. A craggy landscape of paint frames his head. The aesthetics of this field of paint are as close to abstraction as we ever see in Freud's work. It's actually an area of studio wall that he used for cleaning brushes. Frequently documented in photographs, the wall was covered in excess paint wiped from a loaded brush. It transforms the physical act of painting into something akin to geological strata, of layers of paint deposited over many decades.
[National Gallery]
Taken in the gallery
Lucian Freud: New Perspectives
(October 2022 – January 2023)
The exhibition presents the paintings of one of Britain's finest figurative painters, Lucian Freud (1922–2011). It spans a lifetime of work, charting how Freud’s painting changed during 70 years of practice – from his early and intimate works to his well-known, large-scale canvasses and his monumental naked portraits.
Through more than 60 paintings, you will see the development of an artist: paintings of powerful public figures are followed by private studies of friends and family; the familiar, domestic setting gives way to the artist’s paint-splattered studio – a place that becomes both stage and a subject in its own right – and the approximated features of his earliest paintings are complemented by the expertly rendered flesh of his final works.
Freud's celebrity often overshadowed the work he produced and the historical context in which they were made. Bringing to light new perspectives on a lifetime’s work, this exhibition looks beyond Freud's fame and infamy to focus on the artist's uncompromising commitment to painting in the 20th century.
[National Gallery]
Self-portrait, Reflection, 2002
Oil on canvas
In this self-portrait, Freud gives as much attention to the background as to his face. A craggy landscape of paint frames his head. The aesthetics of this field of paint are as close to abstraction as we ever see in Freud's work. It's actually an area of studio wall that he used for cleaning brushes. Frequently documented in photographs, the wall was covered in excess paint wiped from a loaded brush. It transforms the physical act of painting into something akin to geological strata, of layers of paint deposited over many decades.
[National Gallery]
Taken in the gallery
Lucian Freud: New Perspectives
(October 2022 – January 2023)
The exhibition presents the paintings of one of Britain's finest figurative painters, Lucian Freud (1922–2011). It spans a lifetime of work, charting how Freud’s painting changed during 70 years of practice – from his early and intimate works to his well-known, large-scale canvasses and his monumental naked portraits.
Through more than 60 paintings, you will see the development of an artist: paintings of powerful public figures are followed by private studies of friends and family; the familiar, domestic setting gives way to the artist’s paint-splattered studio – a place that becomes both stage and a subject in its own right – and the approximated features of his earliest paintings are complemented by the expertly rendered flesh of his final works.
Freud's celebrity often overshadowed the work he produced and the historical context in which they were made. Bringing to light new perspectives on a lifetime’s work, this exhibition looks beyond Freud's fame and infamy to focus on the artist's uncompromising commitment to painting in the 20th century.
[National Gallery]