Frank Auerbach, ‘The Sitters’, Piano Nobile, Sep — Dec ‘22
‘Frank Auerbach: The Sitters’ was a fascinating exhibition that seemed to be a rare opportunity to see a significant amount of Auerbach’s work together which personally felt very fortuitous given my recent introduction to him. The paintings felt exciting, with a remarkable consistency in approach and subject matter over multiple decades. The style of portraiture was striking in how it really seemed to capture the essence or character of a person rather than simply their physical resemblance.
The works on display included early Auerbach work with its signature incredibly thick paint layered on which has the effect of making the resultant paintings seem almost like sculpture, such is the topography of the work. Auerbach’s later work kept this approach with a focus on texture but moved to focus more on brushstroke and colour, as opposed to three-dimensional depth. Consistent across the two similar styles was the same obsession with capturing the person as he experienced them during a particular sitting.
Auerbach has the same consistent sitters; generally friends, family and lovers, over years and decades which suggests he found them endlessly interesting and novel as subject material. Some of them included William Feaver (friend, critic), Julia [Auerbach] (wife), E.O.W (lover), Catherine Lambert (friend, curator, critic) and a select few others. However, whilst the sitters may be referred to by the same names over the years, over time they will have morphed and changed as people to paint. Painting Julia in the 1980s would have been different to the next decade, and the subsequent one after that. This is akin to how after seeing someone we know after a substantial period, we might experience them very differently as various life events and the passage of time leave their mark on one’s face and general psyche. There is the cultural wisdom phrase that ‘you get the face you deserve’ whereby the type of mental habits one has been dwelling / indulging in over the course of their life gets expressed in one’s face i.e. a deeply furrowed brow from a habit of scowling and more laughter lines from decades of smiling and laughter. Of course, this isn’t a scientific law! This change in facial presentation then gets mingled with the more immediate and short-term effect of however we’ve recently been feeling, the usual undulation of quotidian life, some days melancholic, other days more content, which can be seemingly connected to the world of external events or from more unexplainable internal origins.
Auerbach makes use of a whole range of techniques comprising texture, line, form and colour combined with his perceptions of a person and the relationship he would have had with his sitters. He makes use of over emphasised form to create a visceral atmosphere in his paintings that draws the viewer in and allows you to feel into the psychic space of the sitter. For example, an elongated forehead with soft pastel hues for William Feaver, larger eyes and a muted expression of humility for his son Jake, the way a reclining head of Julia is not differentiated in colour from the background, only her features are heavily outlined as if she wants to merge into the background of the world and leave her concerns and preoccupations behind.
Auerbach also employs a fascinating way of working. If he isn’t satisfied with a work at the end of the day, he will scrape off the paint and start again during his next session so that the final versions of the paintings are made comparatively quickly to the whole process time. Final paintings may be the 16th version. This points to a number of elements within Auerbach’s character and work which are compelling and attractive. Firstly, his ruthlessly high standards for a piece of work that has to feel right to him. Second, the bravery in the creative destruction of taking away the work he had done in a session in order to go through the process again so that he might be more satisfied with the results. For the painting that was ready, Auerbach would proclaim ‘that’s it’ and stop. One might imagine the pain at scraping away work that you’ve done, and the more moderate tendency to re-work aspects, rather than taking it all away and essentially starting again. Additionally, the fact the end of the work would be created in one sitting suggests a boldness and uninhibitedness with brushstrokes, working quicky to capture the essence of a person as they present at that point in the studio. I am sure the paintings could not help but be informed by Auberbach’s personal relationship with his sitters over many years.
One element that made ‘The Sitters’ so compelling was the focus on the essence of a person over their form. Auerbach’s work asks fundamental questions about what a person is and personality type explorations seem to be ubiquitous with Myers-Briggs surveys now relatively common in the workplace. Encountering someone who is obviously being themselves is a joy, particularly when this includes their peculiarities and providing it doesn’t impinge negatively on others. Lucien Freud suggested he wasn’t particularly interested in painting famous sitters such as politicians and actors, but rather those with remarkable characters who he often those met in a pub or from the criminal world Freud associated with. The sentiment of being yourself seems to be present in a watered form for those into ‘bringing your whole self to work’. Salvador Dali said ‘Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy — the joy of being Salvador Dali’. It’s a marker of growth to reach a point of being at home with oneself.
Whilst it seems like the actual paintings themselves were completed in a single sitting the body of work spanning decades highlights Auerbach’s remarkable diligence and consistency. Whilst obviously possessing an excess of natural talent and originality, Auberbach has also been painting daily at a studio in Camden since the mid 1950s, rarely going away. It’s a lesson on the potential gains from sustained effort as well as staying true to ones sense of oneself. Auerbach continued with his figurative portraits and landscapes whilst figurative art turned deeply unfashionable as attention turned towards abstraction and then contemporary art. He had a single mindedness in not being pushed around by the flutter of evolving taste and movements. With hindsight, the fruit of the sustained effort is clear, but it may not have felt like that for Auerbach as a painter attempting to develop in an art world that was moving to contemporary art. In a world of abundant choice, where we are only ever one friend removed from someone contemplating a career change and ‘what if’ questions about one’s life often circling around our heads, it is so refreshing to see someone like Auerbach, who seems incredibly into what he is doing, and so into it that he’ll commit to it for his whole life. He seemed to be led by an erotic charge he just couldn’t ignore.
But perhaps the other side of such focused dedication with the same sitters and local landscapes is the potential lack of innovation in the painting, unlike the constant innovation by Picasso for example. Perhaps more travel to cities with different light may given Auerbach more input and inspiration. I cannot help but wonder about Auerbach’s route to the UK on the kindertransport its relation to his rootedness as an adult.
Spending time with the paintings may lead the viewer to wonder how they might be painted by Auerbach. What colours might he employ? What profile and angles might accentuate me? What might he see in me that I can’t see? We all probably won’t ever get a chance for Auerbach to shine a light on that, but his paintings will be an exhortation to find out, moving towards and embracing who we are.
Early Auerbach
Later Auerbach
