The New Yorker published a wonderful article last week - prompted by the recent publication in the USA of the second and final volume of the landmark and official Biography of Lucian Freud by William Feaver.
The article is titled Lucian Freud and the Truth of the Body by Adam Gopnik. It's a RECOMMENDED jolly good read (or you can listen to it - see podcast link near the top). The article
- discusses the way in which Freud for a long time didn't 'fit' the American art scene - but how that changed over time.
- comments on how this volume covers the 'School of London' painters who were a group of artists who socialised with one another and continued to pursue figurative painting during the 1970s. As such it's also an account of a particular time in art history in London.
- explores Freud's approach to painting his models and how this changed over time
- provides an abridged commentary on the life of Freud - including some of the creepier aspects.
- the second volume of the biography
- my past blog posts about Freud
The Lives of Lucian Freud: Fame: 1968-2011
Freud trusted Feaver with this project because he was convinced Feaver had no interest in his notorious private life. Here are now in total some 1,200 pages to prove him wrong. The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver — lust for life | Financial Times
In September 2020 it was long listed for the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non Fiction.
It was also chosen as 'book of the year' by The Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, the Times, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, New Statesman and the Spectator. It was also the Sunday Times Art Book of the Year.
The first volume - The Lives of Lucian Freud: YOUTH 1922 - 1968 - was shortlisted for the same prize in 2019.
Fame follows Freud at the height of his powers, painting the most iconic works of his career in a constant and dissatisfied pursuit of perfection, just outrunning his gambling debts and tailor's bills. Whether tattooing swallows at the base of Kate Moss's back or exacting a strange and horrible revenge on Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger, Freud's adventures were always perfectly characteristic. An enfant terrible till the end, even as he was commissioned to paint the Queen and attended his own retrospectives, what emerges is an artist wilfully oblivious to the glitter of the world around – and focussed instead on painting first and last.
The biography was researched through daily conversations with Freud over many months - and some reference him as a recorder of detail rather than a biographer in the normal sense of the word i.e. it is not a critical and fact checked endeavour with evaluation from an independent perspective. Rather it is a record of what Freud told him - and events Feaver witnessed during the period when he was Freud's friend. So official rather than authoritative.
Other articles about the book include:
- The Devilish Life and Art of Lucian Freud, in Full Detail | New York Times By Dwight Garner
- The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver review – Fame, 1968-2011 | The Guardian
- The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver — lust for life | Financial Times
- William Feaver: The Lives of Lucian Freud: Fame 1968-2011 review - mesmerising, exhaustive and obsessively detailed | theartsdesk
About William Feaver
William Feaver is a painter, curator and author, and was the art critic for the Observer for 23 years. Currently as well as writing he is also a member of the Academic Board of the Royal Drawing School where he also tutors. He curated Lucian Freud’s 2002 retrospective at Tate Britain, Barcelona and Los Angeles and, after Freud's death, the 2012 exhibition of Freud’s drawings in London and New York. (which I remember extremely well - see my review in "Lucian Freud Drawings" - a life in line).
- The Tate Britain website about the Freud Retrospective (20 June 22 september 2002). 60 years of his work and 150 works
- Guardian article about the 2002 Freud Retrospective by his curator William Feaver
- Guardian Profile of Lucian Freud by Jonathan Jones (2 April 2004)
- BBC Newsnight Review of Freud Retrospective (21 June 2002)
My blog posts about Lucian Freud
My blog posts about Lucian Freud include:
2019
2015
This exhibition is first class - a definite 5*. The content is both comprehensive and absorbing - and it covers seven decades of painting by one man which is a rare phenomenon of itself even when the painter has not been dubbed (as he was - until his death) "Britain's greatest living painter".
- Other Current Exhibitions of Work by or about Lucian Freud
- "Lucian Freud Drawings" - a life in line
- VIDEO: WSJ review of "Lucian Freud Portraits" + BBC2 programme (2012)
- David Hockney on sitting for Lucian Freud
- Video: Sue Tilley talks about modelling for Lucian Freud
- Lucian Freud (1922-2011) - an appreciation
- NPG announces details of Lucian Freud Portraits Exhibition 2012
- Lucian Freud: the Painter's Etchings - at MOMA
- On Portraiture: Chuck Close and Lucian Freud
- Lucian Freud - on film, in words and ink
"I'm not very analytical"
"I'm self-questioning but only up to a point"
"I never think about technique, it holds you up"
"You have to paint on trust"
"I'm fairly immune from praise and abuse"
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