Auerbach at Tate Britian and Red 346

Sometimes surprised how quickly there's something new to see at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, also a little flummoxed at how it often takes me some time to get out the front door.

Not Frank though

Since discovering that my Secondary School Art Teacher Tom Davies is keen on the work of Frank
Auerbach I've been interested to learn more of his Oeuvre.

Having come to appreciate the idea  that Artists look to solve a problem my feeling is that one of Frank's intentions in many of his pictures is to create an image that looks like a representation from a distance (but not so good close up).

What I also noticed was that Auerbach had consistently worked on the same subject matters and models (often his wife)  for much of his 50 plus years working at his craft.

Auerbach was born in Germany but as a Jew was evacuated  to England as part of The Kindertransport program and in fact went to school in Faversham.

 Unlike those figures he studied with (like Peter Blake and Bridget Riley) it's difficult to see Frank as part of a 'school'.

To me the artist looked heavily influenced by celebrated artists of impressionism like Van Gogh, Cézanne and the more recent titan Francis Bacon.  

Although not convinced that I like his work it was a pleasure and an adventure to spend time investigating his works and the 'journey' he's undertaken.

Of particular note is the way his early works piles on the (oil) paint becoming almost sculptural Building site for example seems to approach abstraction.

Where Auberach is successful is with the use of colour capturing a time of day and feel for temperature some of the works (to me) really suggest summer and EOW SAW and JJW (1963) was a favourite.

Auerbach displays his technical skills in his drawings but to me theirs some anger in many of his paintings (although I did hear another of the visitors at the exhibition saying emotion was absent).

Many of his works are about where he lives an paints (North London) and there are many reclining heads of models such as E.O.W and his wife Julia (I was curious to see what she 'actually' looks like).

Red 346

Quite literally Soup-er


Heinz intrinsically linked to Red and even more so with (in the UK) their Tomato Soup