Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting

In the course of a career covering more than sixty years, Auerbach has established a still growing international reputation for his paintings with their vigorous, precise brushwork. He is also respected as one of modern and contemporary art’s clearest thinkers.

Catherine Lampert has had unique access to the artist since 1978, when she first became one of his sitters. With an emphasis on Auerbach ‘speaking’, drawn from her conversations with him and from published and archival interviews, she gives a rare insight into his professional life, working methods and philosophy.

Auerbach also reflects on the places, people and experiences that have shaped his life. These include arriving in Britain as a nearly-8-year-old refugee from Nazi Germany in 1939, finding his way in the London art world of the 1950s and 1960s, his friendships with Leon Kossoff, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, among others, and his approaches to painting.

The text is complemented by illustrations of Auerbach’s paintings and drawings as well as by images from the studio and personal photographs that have never been published before.