The German-born painter Frank Auerbach (b. 1931) has for some seven decades been fascinated by the artistic possibilities of the human form. The Courtauld Gallery looks back to the genesis of this preoccupation in the 1950s and ’60s, when Auerbach, newly settled in London after the Second World War, produced a series of large-scale charcoal portraits of friends and relatives, including serial sitters Stella West and Gerda Boehm (9 Feb–27 May). Rendered almost exclusively in broad black and white strokes, with only sparing touches of coloured chalk, Auerbach’s charcoal heads are gloomy and imposing, yet remarkably alive. Find out more from the Courtauld’s website.
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Head of Gerda Boehm (1961), Frank Auerbach. Private collection, London
Head of Helen Gillespie II (1962), Frank Auerbach. Private collection, London
Head of Julia II (1960), Frank Auerbach. Private collection, London