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Frank Helmut Auerbach (born April 29, 1931) is
Germany|German-born, United Kingdom|British
painter. His work typically portrays either one of
a small group of female models or scenes around
London, especially Camden Town, where his studio
is located.

Auerbach was born in Berlin, but his parents sent
him to England in 1939 to escape the Nazis (the
family was Jewish). He has remained there ever
since, taking British nationality in 1947.

He studied art first at St Martin's School of Art
in London and later at the Royal College of Art.
He also had lessons with David Bomberg who
encouraged him to take inspiration from Paul
Cezanne.

Auerbach is a figurative painter, usually taking
personal friends as his subject, with three people
being used time and again: his wife Julia; the
professional model, Juliet Yardley Mills (usually
referred to as J. Y. M. in titles); and his
personal friend, Stella West (usually referred to
as E. O. W.). He has also made a number of
landscapes of scenes close to his London home,
often taking building sites as the subject rather
than the traditional hills and sheep.

Auerbach's work might broadly be called
expressionist. Many of his paintings display an
extremely thick impasto, something which he was
criticised for at his first solo show in 1956. The
impasto is sometimes so heavy that the paint seems
to have been sculpted rather than brushed on. In
his building site pictures in particular, lines
are sometimes defined not by their colour, but by
a mark left by the stroke of Auerbach's
painting-knife through thick paint.

A similarly sculptural aspect can often be found
even in his drawings: Auerbach layers multiple
sheets of paper as much as half an inch in
thickness and in some parts of the drawing he may
erase so heavily as to go through several sheets.
This can be readily seen in the area surrounding
the upper part of the head in his 1960 Head of
Julia.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/files/cat98-largey9
CmjZ.jpg

The first major retrospective of Auerbach's work
was presented in 1978 by the Arts Council of Great
Britain for the Hayward Gallery, London, and then
toured to the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Other major shows have included "Frank Auerbach:
Paintings and Drawings 1977-85" at the British
Pavilion at the XLII Venice Biennale (1986), where
he shared the Golden Lion prize with Sigmar Polke;
"Frank Auerbach at the National Gallery: Working
after the Masters" (1995), at the National
Gallery, London, presented drawings made over a
thirty-year period from paintings in the National
Gallery's collection; a major retrospective at the
London's Royal Academy in 2001. Many of his works
are in the permanent collection of the Tate
Gallery.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/?lid=136&PHPSESSID=
99c2ca14f9831fbb9aa51e83abb5951c

==External links==
* http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/?lid=35 The Royal
Academy of Arts: Frank Auerbach
*
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupi
d=999999961&artistid=676 Auerbach works at the
Tate
*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/feature/0,11
69,728542,00.html "It's about time", The
Guardian's review of the Royal
Academy of Arts retrospective, September 11, 2001

==Further reading==
* Hughes, Robert, Frank Auerbach, Thames and
Hudson (1990, ISBN 0500092117), reissued 1992
(ISBN 0500276757)