Lucian Freud and Jack B. Yeats - Life above Everything

Lucian Freud and Jack B. Yeats
Life above Everything
June 28, 2019–January 19, 2020

This landmark exhibition examines, for the first time, the interconnections between renowned British artist Lucian Freud (1922–2011) and one of the most important figures in Irish art Jack B. Yeats (1871–1957.

Life above Everything: Lucian Freud and Jack B. Yeats is a major exhibition that brings together the work of two acknowledged masters. Exploring the affinities and interconnections between these two artists, this exhibition draws the work of these two stubbornly individual painters into dialogue, placing them side-by-side for the first time in 70 years.

While Lucian Freud’s work has been exhibited in the past in group exhibitions with other artists from the "School of London," Life above Everything represents a rare occasion for Freud’s work to be presented alongside that of a single other artist.

Freud’s interest in Yeats is little discussed, but he had a lifelong interest in the Irish painter’s work, holding a deep admiration for its force and energy. He did not cite Yeats as an influence but instead seems to have felt a common purpose with his originality and independence, his continuous searching observation, and his sense of the connection between painting and life. A pen-and-ink drawing by Yeats, The Dancing Stevedores (c. 1900), hung on the wall beside Freud’s bed for over 20 years.

Unique to this exhibition is the inclusion of a group of paintings by Jack B. Yeats which Freud selected for a close friend, advising him on works to acquire at auction or through the relevant gallery. We are delighted to be able to present these paintings, "approved" by Freud, as a special grouping of Yeats’s works within this exhibition.

The exhibition is made possible by the IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016-2021, a five-year loan of 52 works by Lucian Freud to the IMMA Collection by private lenders. This is the fourth exhibition to be presented as part of the project.

Life Above Everything includes a substantial number of oil paintings by both artists as well as a range of works on paper, sourced from public and private collections nationally and internationally. There are five new loans of work by Freud to the IMMA Collection: Freud Project including important early works such as Girl with Roses (1947–48), Girl with Beret(1951–52) and Boat, Connemara (1951). Significant loans of works by Yeats include The Bus by the River (1927), People in a Street (1936), A Dancer (Rosses Point, Sligo) (1921), as well as From the Tram Top (1927), which features one of Yeats’s rare cameos in his own work.

Co-curator David Dawson, artist and Freud’s long-time studio assistant for almost 20 years brings to the exhibition a unique, intimate knowledge of Freud’s interest in Yeats. Dawson takes a contemporary approach to the work of both artists, exploring thematic affinities and sequential arrangements across their work. It was Dawson who laid the first seeds of the exhibition at the beginning of the Freud Project.

The exhibition is co-curated by David Dawson, Director of the Lucian Freud Archive, and Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator: Head of Collections and Chief Curator of the Freud Project at IMMA. Dr Nathan O’Donnell (Irish Research Council Enterprise Postdoctoral Fellow, IMMA Collection: Freud Project) is lead researcher for this exhibition.