Frank Auerbach: Twenty Self-Portraits

Self-portraits are a notably rare aspect of Frank Auerbach’s oeuvre. Known primarily for his portraits of a small but dedicated group of sitters and his urban landscapes of the neighbourhood surrounding his home in North London, he had until recently only ever captured his own likeness a handful of times. He produced a total of just three self-portraits between the years 1958 and 1965, comprising of two drawings and one oil over charcoal on paper. It was not until 2001 that he turned to draw his reflection once more, and his first self-portrait in oil on board was not completed until a further two decades later in 2021.

Now in his 90s, this major series of works explores the artist turning to his mirror image as source material; “Now that I’ve got bags under my eyes, things are sagging and so on, there’s more material to work with”. Across the nine paintings and eleven drawings in this exhibition, Auerbach looks to his reflection again and again - each time with a unique combination of accents, colours and abstractions. Worked and reworked over a series of sessions, the complex forms which comprise each picture at first seem to obscure the subject. Once the marks register, however, the subject becomes clear and the features individual to the artist can be traced from portrait to portrait.

This exhibition is the first devoted to Auerbach’s self-portraits and the first presentation of new work by the artist since 2015.

Frank Auerbach is now represented by Frankie Rossi Art Projects.