The Easel

3rd April 2018

Frank Auerbach’s Splintered Labyrinth

Elegant essay on Auerbach and his famously repetitive painting style. “Each Auerbach portrait does not represent a personality per se; each picture is Auerbach’s rather than, foremost, a portrait or a caricature. In truth, every one of the paintings is the same, but lined in a row from start to an un-finished finish, not one would appear the same as any other.”

Sean Scully with David Carrier

A critic once described Scully’s stripe paintings as having “grandeur”.  In interview he does come across as focused on grand themes. Past inspiration – “discord, the way people and ideas compete for survival.” Present inspiration – “to rescue abstraction from remoteness” The art world – “[it] has changed dramatically … Paris, London, and New York no longer call the shots as they did”.