Frank Auerbach
1964-65
Oil paint over charcoal on paper
81.9 x 61 cm
Frank Auerbach occasionally began a portrait head in charcoal on paper but then switched to oil paint, as with this work. The spontaneity of charcoal is carried forward into this imposing depiction of Gerda Boehm – full of energy and movement. The black-and-white forms of the head might almost be embers with a reddish underlayer smouldering beneath the surface. This drawing in paint pushes beyond the conventions of portraiture. Auerbach did not want to make just another picture of a person but ‘an independent image … that stalks into the world like a new monster’.
Private collection
© the artist, courtesy of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London