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ArchiveExhibition

Lucian Freud: New Perspectives

1 Oct 2022-22 Jan 2023

The National Gallery
London WC2N 5DN

Overview

This first major exhibition of Lucian Freud’s work in 10 years brings together paintings from more than seven decades.

The exhibition presents the paintings of one of Britain's most notorious figurative painters, Lucian Freud (1922–2011). It spans a lifetime of work, showing how Freud’s painting changed during 70 years of practice from his early and intimate works to his well-known, large-scale canvasses and his monumental naked portraits.

Through more than 60 paintings, you will see the development of an artist: paintings of powerful public figures are followed by private studies of friends and family; the familiar, domestic setting gives way to the artist’s paint-splattered studio – a place that becomes both stage and a subject in its own right – and the approximated features of his earliest paintings are complemented by the expertly rendered flesh of his final works.

Freud's celebrity often overshadowed the work he produced and the historical context in which they were made. Bringing to light new perspectives on a lifetime’s work, this exhibition looks beyond Freud's fame and infamy to focus on the artist's uncompromising commitment to painting in the 20th century.

Media

How did Lucian Freud present queer and marginalised bodies?
National Gallery
What do these paintings reveal about Lucian Freud?
National Gallery