Frank Auerbach

Frank Helmut Auerbach

Painter

Born: April 29, 1931 in Berlin, Germany

Nationality: British

Frank Auerbach is widely considered to be one of the most extraordinary painters of the 20th century. His work is characterized by its intense physicality, expressive use of paint, and innovative approach to portraiture and cityscapes.

Auerbach was born in Berlin in 1931 and later fled Nazi Germany with his family, settling in England in 1939. He studied at St. Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, and began exhibiting his work in the 1950s.

Throughout his career, Auerbach has been known for his rigorous and experimental approach to painting. He often works on a single painting for months or even years, scraping away layers of paint and rebuilding the image until he achieves the desired effect. This process results in thick, sculptural surfaces that convey a sense of depth and movement.

Auerbach is perhaps best known for his portraits, which are deeply psychological and raw. He often paints the same sitter multiple times over many years, capturing their changing emotions and physical features. His use of heavy impasto and bold color creates a sense of intensity and immediacy that draws the viewer into the emotional world of the subject.

In addition to his portraits, Auerbach is also renowned for his cityscapes, particularly those of London's Camden Town, where he has lived and worked for most of his career. These paintings are characterized by their thick, layered surfaces and dynamic sense of movement, capturing the energy and chaos of the city.

Auerbach's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and retrospectives, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to contemporary art. His extraordinary ability to capture the essence of his subjects in paint, and to push the boundaries of the medium itself, make him a truly exceptional artist whose influence will continue to be felt for generations to come.

Frank Auerbach for Children

Frank Auerbach was a man who liked to paint. He was really, really good at it! He would paint people's faces and the streets of the city where he lived, and he made the paint look like it was popping out of the canvas.

He didn't just paint a picture in one day. He would keep working on it for a long time, adding more paint and taking some away until he thought it was just right. He liked to paint the same person over and over again, so he could capture all the different feelings they had.

Auerbach was born in Germany, but he moved to England when he was a little boy. He went to art school in London and became famous for his paintings there. He lived and worked in the same part of London for most of his life.

Lots of people really love Auerbach's paintings because they're so interesting to look at. Even if you don't know who the person is that he painted, you can feel what they're feeling just by looking at the painting. And when you see his paintings of the city, you can almost hear the sounds of the people and the traffic.

Some Frank Auerbach Quotes Explained

"I feel alive when I'm close to the madness of art."

This quote expresses Auerbach's passion for the creative process of making art. He thrives on the energy and intensity that comes with trying to capture something essential in a painting, and finds it exhilarating to push himself to the brink of what is possible.

"The closer you are to the person and the more you know about them, the less likely you are to make a portrait of them."

This quote may seem paradoxical, but what Auerbach is getting at is that the people we know the best are often the hardest to paint. We have so many preconceptions and expectations about them that it can be difficult to capture their true essence in a portrait. Auerbach often painted people he didn't know very well, precisely because he could approach them with fresh eyes and see them more clearly.

"Painting is sometimes like those recipes where you do all manner of elaborate things to a duck, and then end up putting it on one side and only using the skin."

This quote reflects Auerbach's belief that the process of making art can be full of false starts and dead ends. Just as a chef might spend hours preparing a dish only to discard most of it in the end, Auerbach sometimes found that he had to discard large portions of a painting in order to get to the heart of what he was trying to express.

"I'm hoping to make a painting that looks as if it's been thrown together by someone with no skill."

This quote may seem surprising coming from a master painter like Auerbach, but what he means is that he wants his paintings to feel raw and spontaneous, as if they were created without any forethought or plan. By striving for a sense of immediacy and instinctiveness in his work, Auerbach aimed to capture something essential and vital about the world around him.

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