Ruth Leon recommends… Lucian Freud – National Gallery
Ruth Leon recommendsLucian Freud – National Gallery
The first major exhibition of Lucian Freud’s work in 10 years, bringing together paintings from more than seven decades, has just opened at London’s National Gallery. The exhibition presents the paintings of one of Britain’s most notorious figurative painters, Lucian Freud (1922–2011).
To accompany it, the Gallery has released this fascinating short film about three of the paintings in the exhibition with insights from Curator Paloma Alarcó. What I love about these short explanatory videos is the exposure by the experts of the small details that a casual viewer might never notice from paint-splattered floorboards to an interest in zoology. Collectively, they provide a much richer and more valuable experience and background for us to look at the works.
Lucien Freud was born in Berlin in 1922, the son of architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Primarily a figurative painter, he is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. These portraits are mostly of friends and family, often set in unsettling interiors and urban landscapes. The works are noted for their psychological penetration and often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model.
The most overrated painter of the last century. Just my opinion, of course.