-- A Cyberspace Review Of The Arts

Lucian Freud at Acquavella

Lucian Freud: "Dark Coat II", 1948 Pencil on paper, 11 3/8 x 8 3/8 in. © The Lucian Freud Archive

Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud, is best known for his oversized paintings of oversized models. He worked in postwar London. The Metropolitan Museum owns a painting he did of Leigh Bowery, an entertainer of gigantic proportions, who worked in clubs frequented by the gay set. The paintings are repeatedly touched, again and again as an impasto surface is developed and at certain points of the work one can see mountains of pigment. The theme of excessiveness is developed on many fronts.

A recent show of drawings at Acquevella Galleries covers about fifty years of his drawings, Freud exhibits certain primitive and naive qualities that later develop into a mature style. However at its onset one can easily see the child who delights in the creative process. Freud uses the standards of primitive techniques, repetitive unbroken line, outline of form and a determined devotion to capturing likeness. These qualities are clearly seen in his early drawings done around 1945-1950.

Later he develops a more mature artistic style that conveys an ability beyond mastery and development of draftsmanship that carries over into his excellence as an etcher. There is a close relationship with Freud's paintings specifically those of his oversized models, Leigh Bowery and the tattooed woman. One is suspect of his choice of subject matter. There is always a strong sexual content, especially in his drawings of young boys in compromising positions, pants undone, lying next to each other with faces turned to loins. This is all transformed into a more serious commitment to draftsmanship in his later work. The exhibit catalogues a lifetime of work as well as the development of a draftsman.

Links:

Acquavella Galleries: Lucian Freud Drawings

Robert Sievert