Frank Auerbach

English (born 1931)

All artists

Frank Auerbach *Head of E.O.W. IV* 1961 © FRANK AUERBACH, COURTESY MARLBOROUGH FINE ART

Biography

Born 1931

Nationality English

Birth place Berlin

Born in Berlin, Auerbach left Nazi Germany in 1939 to live in England. After the war he settled in London. In 1954 he took over the Camden Town studio of his fellow artist and close friend Leon Kossoff and he has used the same studio ever since. Auerbach has painted mainly landscapes and townscapes in the Camden Town area, and portraits of a few close friends. These friends sit for him regularly every week and have done so for a number of years. Auerbach spends a long time on each painting, making many preliminary drawings. His paintings are characterised by extremely thick layers of paint. Although this has the appearance of accumulating over several months, the artist regularly scrapes off all the paint to start afresh.

Painter whose works, typically nudes and townscapes, are noted for their extreme impasto and Expressionist style. His teacher, David Bomberg, was very influential on his work. He studied with Bomberg longer than anyone else beginning at Borough Polytechnic in January 1947, attending night classes until 1953, while officially attending St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art.

ID: 500023601

Information from Getty’s Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License

See full Getty ULAN entry