Frank Auerbach, the British-German artist, dies at the age of 93 | Arts and Culture News

Auerbach came to England in 1939 as a child refugee after fleeing Nazi Germany.

Artist Frank Auerbach, who fled Nazi Germany to Britain as a child, has died aged 93, his representatives said.

One of the most prominent painters of the 20th century, Auerbach died at his home in London on Monday.

Geoffrey Parton, director of the Frankie Rossi Art Projects, said on Tuesday they had lost “a dear friend and great artist but take comfort in knowing his voice will be heard for generations to come”.

Born in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach came to England in 1939 as a refugee during World War II under the Kindertransport program, which rescued mainly Jewish children from Nazi territory.

His father, an engineer, and his mother, who were trained as craftsmen, were both killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

He studied at St Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London and devoted his life to painting, becoming one of the leading artists of the 20th century.

His gallery said the British-German artist lived and worked in a north London studio from 1954 until his death.

Along with other post-war artists of the “London School” – including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff – Auerbach focused on figurative paintings regardless of changing artistic fashions, often combining canvases with thick lines of paint to produce something almost uniform but visible. areas of the world.

Auerbach told The Guardian in an interview that he estimates 95 percent of his paint ends up in the bin.

“I'm trying to find a new way to express something,” he said, adding, “So I practice all the other ways until I surprise myself with something I hadn't thought of before.”

In 1986, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale and won the Golden Lion grand prize.

In later life, his work fetched high prices, including in 2023 when his painting Mornington Crescent, which was inspired by the streets of Camden, north London, near his home, sold at a Suthu auction for $7.1m, a record for the artist.

His latest exhibition, Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads, opened in February at London's Courtauld Gallery.

The singer is survived by his son, Jacob Auerbach.