During the mid-20th Century, while Abstract Expressionism was taking hold in the United States, a group of exceptionally gifted artists were making similar waves on the other side of the Atlantic, yet with a very different style. The so-called ‘London School’ of British artists were refusing to abandon figuration, and instead were boldly experimenting with technique, texture and subject matter, pushing the boundaries of painting, and elevating London to the artistic status it still enjoys.
London: This Raw Thing
Joining Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon in the informal ranks of Post-War British painters, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossof’s rigorous focus on their surroundings reveal a visceral connection to the city.
28 January 2016
Leon Kossof Kings Cross Summer, 1998. Oil on board.
Frank Auerbach Mornington Cresent, Summer Morning,
2004. Oil on canvas. © Frank Auerbach.
Image: Tate, London 2016.
Frank Auerbach Red Brick School Building, Willesden, Spring,
1981. Oil on board. © Leon Kossof.
Image: Bridgeman Images.
Joining the likes of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon in the informal ranks of post-war British painters, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossof both developed a rigorous focus on their own surroundings. Both students of David Bomberg, Kossof and Auerbach experiment liberally with the texture of their picture surface, maximising the expression that could be conveyed through the clearly-defined stroke of the painter’s brush. Each of them bases their work on their own visual and emotional experience, taking as subject matter the people and the surroundings of their own lives. This has resulted in an intense focus upon London itself, reflecting its importance as their home. In their paintings, London provides not a backdrop, but a subject. Their paintings reveal a visceral connection to the city. This is emphasised by their repeated depiction of certain motifs, favoured views which are visited again and again, in different lights, moods, seasons and styles over the years.
Auerbach’s paintings of Mornington Crescent perfectly demonstrate this. Living near the North-West London train station, it would constantly be prevalent in his mind’s eye. Therefore, he has painted the scene numerous times throughout his career, often appearing to use the familiar landscape as an armature upon which to test new styles and painterly techniques. For example, Mornington Crescent Winter, painted in 1967-69, is a linear, structured work with thickly applied paint. By contrast, in Mornington Crescent Summer Morning, 2004, we can perceive a much more developed style, combining an intensely expressive brushstroke with a subtler colour palette which itself introduces another mode of expression. Fascinated with this ‘higgledypiggledy mess of a city,’ Auerbach has almost exclusively painted London scenes, while his portraiture largely comprises friends living in the city, who return for sitting after sitting, and indeed painting after painting, themselves becoming a part of his landscape.
Leon Kossof Self Portrait No. 2, 1982. Oil on board.
Auerbach’s good friend and contemporary Leon Kossof employs a similar artistic process. He paints from sketches that he has produced over an extended period of time, using charcoal to sketch the landscapes at different times of the day, in various weather conditions and seasons. He then collates these works on paper and begins the laborious process of layering paint upon paint, gradually allowing the scenes he has depicted so many times before to emerge upon the surface. Kings Cross Summer, 1998 is a striking example of this time-consuming, painstaking method: the viewer is given a real sense of a depth to the image through the impasto of these layered brushstrokes, which are thickly applied to the canvas. ‘It is a question of the eye and the mind,’ Kossof has explained, giving a sense of his passion for London as subject matter. ‘Perhaps everything’s beautiful… It’s a question of how you experience things visually… Something happens when you see Willesden Junction stretching out in front of you. What else can you do but draw it?’ (Leon Kossof interviewed in the Guardian, 2013).
Frank Auerbach Tower Blocks Hampstead Road, 2007. Oil on canvas.
The affiliation both Auerbach and Kossof have with their city is glaringly evident in these portrayals of it. There is a sense of knowledge, and even intimacy, within the works: each brushstroke alludes to the environment and the seasonal weather shifts, while their palettes invoke smoglike gloom here or gleaming vibrancy there. Neither artist will blanch from depicting their home as a living, changing entity, relaying the ever-shifting mood of the city, from day to day, season to season, year to year.
20th Century & Contemporary Art
Evening Sale
London 9 February 2016