Head of Gerda Boehm, 1964
Frank Auerbach
Oil paint on board
Having completed three major charcoal heads of Gerda Boehm in 1961, Auerbach turned to making paintings of her...Working with just three basic tones, Auerbach was able to invest the mass of paint with an unexpected vitality. He has spoken of the importance of repeatedly working from one sitter: 'To paint the same head over and over leads to unfamiliarity; eventually you get near the raw truth about it'.*
From the exhibition
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads
(February – May 2024)
A remarkable series of hauntingly beautiful, large-scale drawings by Frank Auerbach (1931-2024), is being presented together for the first time at The Courtauld Gallery.
During his early years as a young artist in post-war London, Frank Auerbach produced one of his most remarkable bodies of work: a series of large-scale portrait heads made in charcoal. Auerbach spent months on each drawing, working and reworking them during numerous sessions with his sitters.
The marks of this prolonged and vigorous process of creation are evident in the finished drawings, which are richly textured and layered. Sometimes, he would even break through the paper and patch it up before carrying on. Auerbach’s heads emerge from the darkness of the charcoal as vital and alive, having come through a lengthy period of struggle – the image repeatedly created and destroyed. The character of the drawings speaks profoundly of their times as people were remaking their lives after the destructions and upending of war.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads will be the first time Auerbach’s extraordinary post-war drawings, made in the 1950s and early 1960s, have been brought together as a comprehensive group. They will be shown together with a selection of paintings he made of the same sitters; for him, painting and drawing have always been deeply entwined.
[*The Courtauld]
Head of Gerda Boehm, 1964
Frank Auerbach
Oil paint on board
Having completed three major charcoal heads of Gerda Boehm in 1961, Auerbach turned to making paintings of her...Working with just three basic tones, Auerbach was able to invest the mass of paint with an unexpected vitality. He has spoken of the importance of repeatedly working from one sitter: 'To paint the same head over and over leads to unfamiliarity; eventually you get near the raw truth about it'.*
From the exhibition
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads
(February – May 2024)
A remarkable series of hauntingly beautiful, large-scale drawings by Frank Auerbach (1931-2024), is being presented together for the first time at The Courtauld Gallery.
During his early years as a young artist in post-war London, Frank Auerbach produced one of his most remarkable bodies of work: a series of large-scale portrait heads made in charcoal. Auerbach spent months on each drawing, working and reworking them during numerous sessions with his sitters.
The marks of this prolonged and vigorous process of creation are evident in the finished drawings, which are richly textured and layered. Sometimes, he would even break through the paper and patch it up before carrying on. Auerbach’s heads emerge from the darkness of the charcoal as vital and alive, having come through a lengthy period of struggle – the image repeatedly created and destroyed. The character of the drawings speaks profoundly of their times as people were remaking their lives after the destructions and upending of war.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads will be the first time Auerbach’s extraordinary post-war drawings, made in the 1950s and early 1960s, have been brought together as a comprehensive group. They will be shown together with a selection of paintings he made of the same sitters; for him, painting and drawing have always been deeply entwined.
[*The Courtauld]