“I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.” Lucian Freud is a painter of human form, inclusive of the people in his life. Any viewer of Freud’s work can easily depict straight away the specific interest in the subject of the person / people of that specific piece of his work and how definitive of his own self it can be distinguished as who he is. As his grandfather, Sigmund Freud – “the father of psychoanalysis” was a blood relation, people often see a connection between his work and some psychological aspects of what it might appear to take. Although it has been stated that he has claimed not taken a particularly keen interest of his grandfather’s works, it has been questioned whether his art has been influenced into his style.
Freud’s techniques and style consisted of thick layers of strong blended colours of paint used to create the forms and shapes of the objects reflected. Many of his paintings show a variation in brush strokes used to develop the texture and depth of realistic yet dramatised tones. The way in which he has used the abstract colours to imply the different shades on the objects works well to demonstrate the different dimensions and perspectives, but the colours he uses are uneasy on the eyes and can express the arts in more of a disturbed atmosphere which works well for a certain genre of paintings, but on the other hand it just doesn’t seem to work too well for the type of expression he seems to indicate with the layout and poses of the subjects he has chosen. The contrast helps distinguish the separate parts of objects from the background and the surrounding area clearly making the images seem more appealing and fresh.
The art from Freud establishes the same genre of focus. Embracing the techniques he has developed, his work has certainly changed over his career but has elevated his reputation and popularity for such a range of art. Although the techniques he uses are not without fault, he certainly utilises his talent well and produces interesting images that have been featured in shows and exhibitions. Overall Freud is a talented artist and will carry on creating works of art in his own forever developing style and is already a famous well known artist.
Sebastian Smee, Lucian Freud, 2007, Taschen, Germany
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