Frank Auerbach, British-German painter, dies at 93

Auerbach came to England in 1939 as a child refugee after fleeing from Nazi Germany.

Painter Frank Auerbach, who fled Nazi Germany to Britain as a child, has died at age 93, his representatives say.

One of the foremost painters of the 20th century, Auerbach died at his home in London on Monday.

Geoffrey Parton, director of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, said on Tuesday that they had lost “a dear friend and remarkable artist but take comfort knowing his voice will resonate for generations to come”.

Born in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach came to England in 1939 as a refugee during World War II under the Kindertransport scheme, which rescued mainly Jewish children from Nazi territory.

His engineer father and his mother, who trained as an artist, were both killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

He studied at the St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London and devoted his life to painting, becoming one of the foremost artists of the 20th century.

His gallery said the British-German painter lived and worked in the same north London studio from 1954 until his death.

Alongside the other “School of London” post-war artists – including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff – Auerbach focused on figurative paintings regardless of the changing artistic fashions, often slathering canvases in thick layers of paint to produce near-abstract but recognisable landscapes.

Auerbach told The Guardian in an interview that he estimated 95 percent of his paint ended up in the bin.

“I’m trying to find a new way to express something,” he said, adding, “So I rehearse all the other ways until I surprise myself with something I haven’t previously considered.”

In 1986, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale and won the Golden Lion top prize.

In later life, his work was valued at high prices, including in 2023 when his painting Mornington Crescent, inspired by the streets in Camden, north London, near his home, sold at Sotheby’s auction house for $7.1m, a record for the artist.

His most recent exhibition, Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads, opened in February at London’s Courtauld Gallery.

The artist is survived by his son, Jacob Auerbach.

Source

:

Al Jazeera and news agencies