Frank Auerbach (b. 1931 Berlin, Germany – lives in London, England)
Study for Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II, 2004
Black ink, coloured crayon and pencil on paper
Immigrated to Britain 1939
Auerbach’s expressive drawing style suggests a spontaneity often associated with joy but his process - as many as 200 hundred drawings may be used to create a single painting - also suggests how meticulously each work is planned. He has observed: ‘I go out each morning and I draw. I can't really start on a painting in the morning until I've done a drawing [...] I feel dissatisfied with what I'm doing, so I go out and once I've been provided with a reason for changing my picture I can come back to the studio and change it - usually it is a new sensation of proportion or connection, often revealed by light’.
Provenance
donated by Marlborough Fine ArtExhibitions
2010 Apocalypse: unveiling a lost masterpiece by Marc Chagall and 50 selected masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection, Osborne Samuel
2015 No Set Rules: A Century of Selected Works from the Schlee Collection, Southampton, and the Ben Uri Collection, London, Ben Uri Gallery
2016 Unexpected: continuing narratives of identity and migration, Ben Uri Gallery
2018 Exodus: masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection, Bushey Museum
2018 Acquisitions and Long-Term Loan Highlights Since 2001, Ben Uri Gallery
2019 Refuge: The Art of Belonging, Abbot Hall Art Gallery
2019 Art-exit: 1939 - A Very Different Europe, 12 Star Gallery
2019 Friends and Influences: Auerbach, Freud, Kitaj, Kossoff, Bomberg; Chagall, Soutine, Marevna, Ben Uri Gallery
2023 Joy, Ben Uri Gallery
Literature
Sarah MacDougall, ed., 'No Set Rules: A Century of Selected Works from the Schlee Collection, Southampton and the Ben Uri Collection, London' (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2015), pp. 24-25, illus.
