Death of painter Frank Auerbach, major figure of the London school

The figurative painter Frank Auerbach, one of the members of the London school with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, has died at the age of 93, his gallery announced Tuesday. The artist, who fled Nazi Germany for the United Kingdom as a child, is « died peacefully in the early hours of Monday November 11 at his home in London, aged 93 »indicated the Frankie Rossi gallery.

Born in Berlin in 1931 into a Jewish family, he arrived in England in 1939 as a child refugee. He was naturalized in 1947. After studying at St. Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, he devoted the remaining seven decades of his life to painting. His intense portraits and lively, colorful London landscapes made his reputation, which came relatively late. His technique consisted of superimposing several layers of paint on the canvas to create a material effect. His paintings have always remained figurative, despite a trend that has gone out of fashion. He lived and worked in the same north London studio from 1954 until his death, according to his gallery.

In 2015, the London museum Tate Britain devoted a major retrospective to him, helping to increase his popularity on the art market. In 2023, Mornington Crescentone of the many works inspired by the streets near his house, was sold at auction for 7 million dollars (more than 6.6 million euros), a record for the artist. The previous year, his painting Head by Gerda Boehm had been sold for more than 5 million dollars (4.7 million euros). His most recent exhibition, Frank Auerbach : The Charcoal Headsdates from February 2024. It was held at the Courtauld Gallery in London. When his death was announced, several major museums and cultural institutions paid tribute to his memory, including the National Gallery.