Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits

About this book

The artist stripped bare by himself: Lucian Freuds self-portraits redefine the genre In 1964 Lucian Freud set his students at the Norwich College of Art an assignment: to paint naked self-portraits and to make them revealing telling believable ... really shameless. It was advice that the artist was often to follow himself. Visceral unflinching and often nude Freuds self-portraits chart his biography and give us an insight into the development of his style. These paintings provide the viewer with a constant reminder of the artists overwhelming presence whether he is confronting the viewer directly or only present as a shadow or in a reflection. Freuds exploration of the self-portrait is unexpected and wide-ranging. In this volume essays by leading authorities including those who knew him explore Freuds life and work and analyze the importance of self-portraiture in his practice. Lucian Freud was born in Germany in 1922 and permanently relocated to London in 1933 during the ascent of the Nazi regime. After seeing brief service during World War II Freud had his first solo exhibition in 1944 at the Alex Reid & Lefevre Gallery in London. Despite exhibiting only occasionally over the course of his career Freuds 1995 portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping was sold at auction at Christies New York in May 2008 for $33.6 million setting a world record for sale value of a painting by a living artist. Freud died in London in 2011.