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Friends and Relations

Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews

November 17, 2022–January 28, 2023
Grosvenor Hill, London

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Installation video

Installation view Artwork, left, center left, and right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; center right © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left, center left, and right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; center right © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left: © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton; center left and center right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; center: © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate; right: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left: © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton; center left and center right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; center: © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate; right: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left and right: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; center: © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left and right: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; center: © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton; © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton; © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, from left to right: Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton; © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, from left to right: Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton; © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © The Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images; © The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Works Exhibited

Francis Bacon, Head of a Man, 1960 Oil on canvas, 33 ⅝ × 33 ⅝ inches (85.2 × 85.2 cm), Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England© Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022

Francis Bacon, Head of a Man, 1960

Oil on canvas, 33 ⅝ × 33 ⅝ inches (85.2 × 85.2 cm), Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England
© Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2022

Michael Andrews, The Colony Room I, 1962 Oil on board, 48 × 72 inches (121.9 × 182.8 cm), Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, England© The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Mike Bruce

Michael Andrews, The Colony Room I, 1962

Oil on board, 48 × 72 inches (121.9 × 182.8 cm), Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, England
© The Estate of Michael Andrews/Tate. Photo: Mike Bruce

Lucian Freud, Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa, 1989–91 Oil on canvas, 39 ⅜ × 35 ½ inches (100 × 90 cm)© The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022/Bridgeman Images. Photo: Rob McKeever

Lucian Freud, Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa, 1989–91

Oil on canvas, 39 ⅜ × 35 ½ inches (100 × 90 cm)
© The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022/Bridgeman Images. Photo: Rob McKeever

Frank Auerbach, Self Portrait III, 2021 Acrylic on board, 23 ¾ × 21 inches (60.3 × 53.3 cm)© Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd

Frank Auerbach, Self Portrait III, 2021

Acrylic on board, 23 ¾ × 21 inches (60.3 × 53.3 cm)
© Frank Auerbach, courtesy Geoffrey Parton. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd

About

Gagosian is pleased to announce Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, opening on November 17 at the gallery’s Grosvenor Hill location in London. Taking as its inspiration a famous John Deakin photograph of the four painters in Soho in 1963 (along with much younger painter Timothy Behrens, the subject of a portrait by Freud that is on view), the exhibition elucidates the connections between their respective practices, and also features some of the artists’ portraits of each other.

Curated by art historian Richard Calvocoressi, Friends and Relations contextualizes key works by four era-defining artists. Featuring more than forty paintings from private and public collections, it positions Freud—in the centenary year of his birth—as the grouping’s central figure. Each painter was aware of the others’ practices, to the extent of occasionally competing with one another, but of the four, Freud alone collected his friends’ work. At various times throughout his life, he owned paintings by Bacon. At his death, he owned sixteen by Auerbach and one small oil by Andrews. The exhibition includes two portraits by Auerbach formerly in Freud’s collection, on loan from British museums.

Portraiture was at the heart of Freud’s, Bacon’s, Auerbach’s, and, less directly, Andrews’s practices. The exhibition’s title echoes not only the four artists’ camaraderie and interrelationships, but also the intimate relationships between artist and sitter, including artist and lover, partner, and offspring. Girl in a Dark Jacket (1947) exemplifies Freud’s crisp, early style and depicts Kitty Garman, his first wife and the daughter of sculptor Jacob Epstein and Kathleen Garman; Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa (1989–91), praised by his friend, photographer Bruce Bernard, as “one of Freud’s most audacious and sensitive works,” shows the reclining figure of the artist’s daughter, Bella. The Painter’s Mother Resting III (1977) is an early entry in a series of portraits of the artist’s mother, Lucie Freud, which he began after the death of his father, Ernst Freud, in 1970.

The intense friendship between Freud and Bacon is commemorated in the latter’s Three Studies for Portraits: Isabel Rawsthorne, Lucian Freud and J.H. (1966), in which Freud’s head is paired with those of John Hewitt, a dealer in antiquities and ethnographic art, and Rawsthorne, a close friend and fellow artist whom Bacon represented in many other paintings. Another highlight is Portrait of a Man Walking Down Steps (1972), a tribute by Bacon to his lover George Dyer, who committed suicide the previous year, the day before the opening of the artist’s 1971 retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris.

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Jenny Saville and Martin Gayford

In Conversation
Jenny Saville and Martin Gayford

Gagosian hosted a conversation between Jenny Saville and Martin Gayford, art critic and author, in conjunction with the exhibition Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. Gayford also spoke with the artist about her works in the exhibition Jenny Saville: Latent at Gagosian, rue de Castiglione, Paris.

Installation view of the exhibition "Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews"

Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews

Join Jake Auerbach, Richard Calvocoressi, Bella Freud, Martin Gayford, and Florence Hallett as they discuss the work and legacy of four era-defining artists. Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, recently on view at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, elucidated the connections between their respective practices, and featured some of the artists’ portraits of one another.

Timothy Behrens, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, andMichael Andrews (left to right) at Wheeler's restaurant in Soho,London, 1963. Photo: © John Deakin/John Deakin Archive/BridgemanImages

Frank Auerbach: Artist Friends

In this candid interview with Richard Calvocoressi, the painter Frank Auerbach reminisces on his friendships with Michael Andrews, Francis Bacon, and Lucian Freud. The two spoke during the planning of the exhibition Friends and Relations, a show that examines the interconnected lives and art practices of this group of London painters.

Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Winter 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022

The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.

Black and white image of Bruce Bernard, Lucian Freud Standing on His Head, with Daughter Bella, 1983

Bruce Bernard: Portraits of Friends

Virginia Verran details the photographer’s friendships with the London painters.

Image of Francis Bacon's ‘Landscape with Pope/Dictator’ painting, c. 1946

Francis Bacon: The First Pope

Richard Calvocoressi tells the story of Francis Bacon’s first image of the pope, ‘Landscape with Pope/Dictator’, c. 1946.

News

Lucian Freud in his studio, London, 1989. Photo: Julia Auerbach

Screening

Films about Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach by Jake Auerbach

Monday, January 23, 2023, 2pm
Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London

Join Gagosian for a film program with Jake Auerbach, a filmmaker specializing in documentaries on artists including R. B. Kitaj, Celia Paul, Paula Rego, and Walter Sickert. The four selected films focus on his father, Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud, offering insight into the artists’ lives and work, and will be screened inside the exhibition Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrewsgiving the audience a unique viewing experience. Each screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Jake Auerbach.

2pm: Freud: Omnibus (39 min.)
3:15pm: Frank (56 min.)
4:30pm: Lucian Freud: Portraits (66 min.)
6pm: Frank Auerbach: To the Studio (55 min.)

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Lucian Freud in his studio, London, 1989. Photo: Julia Auerbach

Bruce Bernard, 4: Bella Freud, Celia Paul and Lucian Freud in his studio, 1983 © Estate of Bruce Bernard (courtesy Virginia Verran)

In Conversation

On Bruce Bernard and Lucian Freud with Bella Freud, Celia Paul, and Virginia Verran
Moderated by Richard Calvocoressi

Wednesday, December 7, 2022, 6:30pm
Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London

Join Gagosian for a conversation between Bella Freud, Celia Paul, and Virginia Verran, moderated by Gagosian director and art historian Richard Calvocoressi, on the occasion of the exhibitions Bruce Bernard: Portraits of Friends and Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, both at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, from November 17, 2022, to January 28, 2023. Virginia Verran, who represents Bruce Bernard’s estate, will discuss his photographs of the four artists from Friends and Relations in their studios, while fashion designer Bella Freud, Lucian Freud’s daughter, and artist Celia Paul—subjects of some of the painter’s most significant and intimate portraits—will recount their experiences of sitting for Lucian Freud’s paintings and in front of Bruce Bernard’s camera. 

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Bruce Bernard, 4: Bella Freud, Celia Paul and Lucian Freud in his studio, 1983 © Estate of Bruce Bernard (courtesy Virginia Verran)