The demise of the artist Frank Auerbach this yr prompted a torrent of tributes from key artwork world figures highlighting the exceptional life and legacy of the prolific German-born painter who labored from the identical London studio for 70 years. It appeared like all the things that wanted to be mentioned about Auerbach had already been acknowledged within the reams of protection. However Auerbach’s son, filmmaker Jake, helpfully units the document straight about his dad within the UK newspaper The Observer. “A couple of persistent myths appear to hold round him and they’re price rebutting. Delusion No 1: ‘Auerbach produces footage which might be weighed down with thick paint’,” Jake Auerbach wrote, stressing that the work haven’t been “thick” for greater than 50 years.
Subsequent false impression busted—”Delusion No 2 (the one which had him grumbling essentially the most): ‘Frank Auerbach got here to England on the Kindertransport’. He didn’t. His sponsorship was because of a non-public act of generosity by the author Iris Origo and was fully unconnected to Kindertransport,” says Jake. After which we transfer on to the ultimate little bit of Frank folklore to be turned on its head. “Delusion No 3: ‘Frank does nothing however paint and finds it tough to speak.’ Frank described himself as a ‘beast in a burrow’ however his popularity as a hermit was overstated; he ate out, loving particularly his native, the Daphne, in Camden; he went to exhibitions, to the theatre, to the cinema and he learn voraciously. He beloved pub quizzes and there have been just a few occasions when he would be part of me and mates as a staff member,” says his son, giving a real image of this late lamented artwork titan.
