Frank Auerbach (b. 1931-2024), one of Britain’s best-known painters, has died at 93. He was born in Germany and emigrated to Britain under the Kindertransport programme that saved the lives of thousands of Jewish children during the Second World War. Auerbach was celebrated for his intense, tactile portraits and landscapes. He utilised thick, layered paint applications along with his almost obsessive dedication to the craft, producing some of contemporary art’s most distinctive and emotionally charged works. Often hailed as one of Britain’s finest artists, Auerbach’s work earned him a place among the most influential post-war painters, and he is considered one of the foremost figures in British figurative painting alongside such contemporaries as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
Auerbach was born in Berlin and, at eight, arrived in England in 1939, escaping the terrors of Nazi Germany. Eventually, both parents would perish in the Holocaust-a tragedy that would brand his life and work. He was raised in England, first attending Bunce Court School and later developing a prodigious talent for art. Continuing to Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art, he eventually created his own style and became deeply intertwined with the dynamic post-war London art scene.
“When I was young when I started, I thought like everyone else that the aim was to become marvellous and to be famous, which has fallen away by now,” he stated in a BBC interview earlier this year, “I live a quiet amazingly restrictive life, and I just go on in this tranquil way; if this interview hadn’t forced me to make these presumptuous and pretentious statements, I would have been innocently sloshing away in the room next door with the knowledge that the pleasure and the success is in the feeling of having done something.”
Auerbach’s work is characterised by its concentration on process and form in portraiture and cityscapes. He worked on a few subjects for decades, frequently returning to the same sitters as his friend and model Juliet Yardley Mills- also known as J.Y.M.- and his wife, Julia Auerbach. The continuous work on a few subjects allows him to explore their essence, utilising thick sculptural layers of oil paint. These paintings take as long as months or even years to complete since Auerbach constantly scrapes off the paint and reapplies layers until he gets the right form and depth he desires. The result is multilayered yet dynamic works that carry the imprint of repetition of effort and revision.
Apart from portraits, Auerbach is known for his raw, visceral landscapes of London, particularly those around Camden, where he has lived and worked most of his life. His studio has been in the same building in Mornington Crescent since the 1950s, and the repeated depictions of nearby streets and parks describe a continuing attachment to this part of London. He has expressed the ever-shifting spirit of London in his landscapes, transposing familiar scenes of urban life into almost abstract meditations on form and colour.
Auerbach received a wide range of praise for his work, further strengthening his position in British art. His work was shown in several prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Tate, the National Gallery in London, the New York Museum of Modern Art, and Kunstmuseum Bonn. Throughout it all, Auerbach was very private. He led a reclusive life, mostly dedicating himself to painting and rarely giving interviews or appearing publicly.
Frank Auerbach was one of those painters who never gave up on the physicality of paint and the seeing process; his work examined a human presence and perception. He has inspired younger generations of artists, collectors, and institutions worldwide. He will be remembered as a central figure in the legendary School of London—a group of artists who found inspiration in the grit and grime of their adopted city, igniting a new wave of modernist painting in Britain.
The Ben Uri Gallery released the following statement:
“You will have read, seen, or heard the sad news of Frank Auerbach’s passing.
There are and will continue to be extensive obituaries recording his remarkable career and rarity of talent, which elevated him to be recognised as one of the few great and seminal artists of our time.
This note is simply to express our sadness, admiration, respect, and endless appreciation for his long-standing support for Ben Uri and its repositioning to craft a secure, meaningful, and purposeful 21st-century future in parallel with its past.
We owe our fine collection of his works to him and his long-standing dealer and friend, Geoffrey Parton. These works will be a constant tribute to a rare man whose interest was solely in his practice rather than himself.
May he rest in peace and his memory be a blessing.”
Read Sue Hubbard’s Significant Works on Auerbach