Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach studied at Saint Martin's School of Art, Royal College of Art and London South Bank University. The recorded working language is English and German. The field of work recorded is visual arts. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait, nude and landscape. David Bomberg is recorded as an influence. Places of work recorded in the authority are Great Britain and London. Employment is recorded with Camberwell College of Arts. Work by Frank Auerbach is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Städel Museum, Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery of Victoria.

• Name — Frank Auerbach • Birth Name — Frank Helmut Auerbach • Born — 29 April 1931 • Birthplace — Berlin, Germany • Died — 11 November 2024 • Place of death — London, England • Citizenship — * Germany (until 1935) • Stateless (1935–1947) • British subject (from 1947) • Education — * St Martin's School of Art • Royal College of Art • Borough Polytechnic • Known for — Painting • Movement — School of London • Children — Jake

Auerbach was born on 29 April 1931 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Max Auerbach, a patent lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Borchardt, who had trained as an artist. With rising Nazi persecution of Jews such as themselves, his parents sent him to Britain in 1939, one of six such children sponsored by British writer Iris Origo. His parents stayed behind in Germany, and were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. In Britain, Auerbach became a pupil at Bunce Court School, near Faversham in Kent, where he excelled in not only art but also drama classes. Indeed, he almost became an actor, even taking a small role in Peter Ustinov's play House of Regrets at the Unity Theatre in St. Pancras, at the age of 17. But his interest in art proved a stronger draw and he began studying in London, first at St Martin's School of Art from 1948 to 1952, and at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. Yet, perhaps the clearest influence on his art training came from a series of additional art classes he took at London's Borough Polytechnic, where he and fellow St Martin's student Leon Kossoff were taught by David Bomberg from 1947 until 1953.

In 1955, he began teaching in secondary schools, but he quickly moved into the visiting tutor circuit at numerous art schools, including Bromley, Sidcup and the Slade School. In particular, he taught one day a week from 1958 to 1965 at Camberwell School of Art. He was the teacher, influence and sponsor of many artists, including Tom Philips, Jenny Saville, Cecily Brown, Peter Saunders and Ray Atkins. For instance, he wrote to Andrew Forge, senior lecturer at the Slade to say that there were some remarkable students that he might consider, particularly Ray Atkins and Jo Keys, obtaining a place for them there. Auerbach's first solo exhibition was at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London in 1956, followed by further solo shows there between 1959 and 1963. His work was featured at Marlborough Fine Art in London at regular intervals after 1965 as well as at the Marlborough Gallery in New York in 1969, 1982, 1994, 1998 and 2006. In 1978, he was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and was included in the exhibition A New Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1981. In 1986, he represented Britain in the Venice Biennale, sharing the Golden Lion with Sigmar Polke. Further exhibitions were featured at: the Yale Center for British Art in 1981, alongside Michael Andrews, Francis Bacon, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Patrick George, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow; the Kunstverein in 1986; the Van Gogh Museum in 1989; Marlborough Graphics in 1990; the Yale Center for British Art in 1991; the National Gallery in 1995; the Royal Academy of Arts in 2001. From 2007 to 2008, Auerbach held a solo show entitled Frank Auerbach Etchings and Drypoints 1954–2006 at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which toured to the Abbot Hall Art Gallery. In 2009, he had another solo show at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Auerbach was the subject of a television film entitled Frank Auerbach: To the Studio, directed by Hannah Rothschild and produced by Jake Auerbach (Jake Auerbach Films Ltd). This was first broadcast on the arts programme Omnibus on 10 November 2001. London's Tate Britain, in association with the Kunstmuseum Bonn, organised a major retrospective of Auerbach's work in 2015 and 2016. The exhibit was curated by Catherine Lampert together with the artist. David Bowie owned Auerbach's Head of Gerda Boehm as part of his private collection. After Bowie's death in 2016, this piece was among many put up for auction in November 2016, where it was sold for £3.8 million (US$4.7 million). In 2024, the exhibition Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads at The Courtauld Gallery showcased a series of large-scale charcoal drawings by Auerbach, created in post-war London during the 1950s and early 1960s.

He met Julia Wolstenholme at the Royal College of Art; they were married from 1958 until her death in January 2024, though they separated for a dozen years in the 1960s and 1970s, later reconciling to form what their son called "an unorthodox but reasonably functional family". In 1958, their only child, Jacob "Jake" Auerbach, was born. A film director, he produced a documentary film, Frank: by Jake, in which Auerbach comments on his 60-year career and a video walkthrough of one of his shows. His cousin is the German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Auerbach died in London on 11 November 2024, at the age of 93.

The highest price to date for one of Auerbach's paintings was £5,565,200 ($7,079,855) for Mornington Crescent (1969) at Sotheby's, London, on 27 June 2023.

He also worked under the name Auerbach, Frank Helmuth. The authorities additionally record the heading Frank Helmut Auerbach. His recorded languages were English and German. Other recorded relations include Marcel Reich-Ranicki and Andrew Ranicki.