FRANK AUERBACH (B. 1931)Catherine Lampert Seated oil on canvas 51 x 41cm (20 1/16 x 16 1/8in).Painted between 1991-1992 Footnotes:ProvenanceMarlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, no. 40603.6.Acquired from the above by the present owner. LiteratureW. Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York, 2009, no. 688 (illustrated p. 316).W. Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York, 2022, no. 688 (illustrated p. 358).Frank Auerbach is one of Britain's most distinctive and celebrated painters. An artist for whom the creation of a raw, living image made in response to the presence of a seated model has for over fifty years been a fundamental, ongoing preoccupation throughout his remarkable oeuvre. Renowned especially for his heavy application of paint that masterfully fills his compositions, Auerbach is credited with making some of the most impressive, vibrant, and intuitive portraits of the post-war years. His first exhibition was held at London's Beaux Arts Gallery in 1956 and since then his paintings have become some of the most internationally collected of living artists. Painted between 1991 and 1992, Catherine Lampert Seated is a vibrant portrait of Auerbach's close friend, biographer, and muse, Catherine Lampert. He first met Lampert in 1978 when she was working on his retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London, and had conducted an extensive interview with him for the catalogue. Lampert would later become Director of the Whitechapel Gallery in 1988 before later curating Auerbach's major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2001. Over the ensuing years, she visited his studio up to twice a week, becoming the subject of more than seventy portraits that continued the explorations initiated by his earlier muses Stella West (E.O.W.), Juliet Yardley Mills (J.Y.M.), and his wife Julia. He was profoundly influenced by artists that spanned history, from Rembrandt to Soutine, through to Giacometti and de Kooning. Therefore, it is unsurprising that art historians also became fundamental to his oeuvre, including also William Feaver, the author of the most comprehensive monograph on Auerbach to date.The present work is a compelling display of expressive brushwork and impasto technique featuring a vibrant amalgamation of colours and texture, with thick, layered paint that adds a sculptural quality to the composition. Seated only meters away from his easel, Lampert acknowledged how 'Auerbach moves noisily around the room, looks at the painting in the mirror, turns the canvas, stands back, and then rushes up, and like darts or writing on the blackboard fairly brutally tries the next throw or cancels the previous one. He is continuously active, drawing in the air, talking to himself, hardly pausing.' (Catherine Lampert, Frank Auerbach Paintings and Drawings 1954-2001, exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2001, p. 62). His vigorous and sweeping brushstrokes create a dynamic sense of movement and energy. The application of rich impasto is particularly built up in the lower and central passages, where opulent reds, earthy browns, and vibrant yellows converge, giving the work a tactile, almost three-dimensional illusion. The head and body of Lampert are rendered in a swirling sweep of brushstrokes and accumulation of pigment, projecting dynamically from the thinner areas of paint that render the background. Lampert's facial features have been executed with almost singular strokes or daubs of the brush with every gesture, shape, and colour imbued with the essence of life. As Lampert herself asserted, the moments spent with Auerbach felt as though time was suspended; 'that odd limbo, not an unpleasant state, of drifting from practical self-reminders into daydreams and unquantifiable desires.' (quoted in William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York, 2009, p. 21). Auerbach's method of execution was methodical and perpetual, he scrapes back his paintings in progress, continuously recreating the evolving image. This process is shaped by continual, intensive observation and the gradual accumulation of empirical information. Thus, the resulting portraits are steadily infused with an inexplicable vitality. Although a largely figurative painter, Auerbach's intensive and unique style renders his portraits fundamentally abstract, and they appear to reflect the artist's emotional and psychological state as much as they do of the sitter. His technique conveys not just the physical presence of the sitter, but also a profound emotional connection, evident in the intense and intimate depiction of the subject. As William Feaver once stated, 'Auerbach's heads are conceived not as busts or cameos but as presences' (William Feaver, ibid., p. 20). Frank Auerbach is widely recognised as one of the most inventive and influential painters of the post-war era. Along with his 1978 retrospective at London's Hayward Gallery, the artist was also honoured in 2015 by London's Tate Britain, in partnership with Kunstmuseum Bonn, with another major retrospective of his work. Today, his paintings reside in the prestigious permanent collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the National Portrait Gallery in London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, among many others. Through brilliant colour and a faultless execution of Auerbach's charismatic and established painterly gesture, Catherine Lampert Seated carries a powerful and emotional charge. The result encapsulates a seminal exposition of the artist's thoroughly inimitable and compelling portraiture which is excitingly fresh to the market. Refer to department for Lot Estimates.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * AR* VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.AR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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