Lucian Freud

Pressetext

Acquavella Contemporary Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by LUCIAN FREUD opening November 2nd 2006.

Since his last sold-out solo exhibition in New York at Acquavella Contemporary Art in 2004 Freud has completed over ten major paintings and five new etchings.

The themes that inspire the 83 year-old artist are continued with passion and vigor. These include a number of startling female nudes ; a view of his garden from the studio window; a mare eating hay; his studio assistant David Dawson with his dog Eli and a portrait of the artist’s dealer, William Acquavella: New Yorker in a Blue Shirt All the works are being seen for the first time in New York. Three of them were exhibited in April, 2006 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in a widely acclaimed exhibition pairing Freud with his long-time friend and fellow artist Frank Auerbach, both seen in the company of works by British Masters John Constable and J.M.W.Turner.

The largest work to be shown, The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer, 2005, (56 x 46 inches) caused a sensation when it was recently exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Freud presents himself standing in his studio in the act of painting as an unclothed young woman, eyes closed, crouches at his feet while grasping his leg. According to Freud scholar William Feaver:

“Artist and model thought up the pose between them…achieving a lively and complicit character. In relation to her, Freud casts himself as a Prospero working his magic in defiance of the awareness that he is well into the conceivably redemptive Act III of a long and noted working life.”

Lucian Freud