To celebrate the centenary of Lucian Freud’s birth, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert will host Lucian Freud: Interior Life, an exhibition of etchings, plates, drawings and oils alongside photographs by David Dawson. The exhibition will explore how Freud used printmaking to scrutinise his subjects, expanding upon the intense observation that makes his paintings so compelling. A room dedicated to Dawson’s candid photographs taken in the final months of Freud’s life offers a unique opportunity to turn the inquisition onto the artist himself. The majority of works presented in Lucian Freud: Interior Life will be available for sale.
Shown for the first time, David Dawson’s photographs of Freud’s home walk the viewer through the works of art that he chose to live with, which include examples by Auerbach, Corot, Degas and Bacon. Together with images of the studio showing paint-covered walls, piles of brushes and rags on the floor, the photographs provide a brilliant understanding of Freud’s greatest compositions. Taken during the last months of Freud’s life, there is a striking absence of human form, yet the artist’s presence is very much felt through details such as the stack of coats over the bannister and his boots in the studio. In this way, the pictures capture a sense of time beyond the physical works and offer a uniquely intimate encounter between artist and sitter.
David Dawson’s twenty-year working relationship with Freud coincided with the artist’s renewed interest in printmaking after returning to the medium in the early 1980s. This exhibition will bring together twenty etchings by Freud with original copper plates. Shown together, the viewer can share how ‘Lucian was always trying to get his etching close to a painterly quality; the graphic line made to carry weight and volume.’ David Dawson, January 2022
Freud often started working on a print after an oil was completed. He stood the metal plate up on the easel, treating it like a canvas and working directly from the model, as in his paintings. Lucian Freud: Interior Life will include a number of oils and drawings that reinforce the close relationship between mediums and shared intense psychological tension that Freud was defined by.
Lucian Freud: Interior Life will coincide with the National Gallery’s major exhibition of paintings, Lucian Freud: New Perspectives.
| Duration | 06 October 2022 - 16 December 2022 |
| Times | Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm Saturday 11am – 6pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert |
| Address | 38 Bury Street, London, SW1 6BB |
| Contact | 4402078397600 / info@hh-h.com / www.hh-h.com |