ARTS
Exhibitions
Lucian Freud: Recent Work (Whitechapel Art Gallery, till 21 Novem-
Portrait of an ageing existentialist
Giles Auty
The exhibition of Lucian Freud's work currently on view at the Whitechapel moves on at the end of the year in extend- ed form to New York and then Madrid. In this it differs from the British Council tour- ing show of his work which I saw in Paris in January 1988: this went also to Berlin but was turned down by the major public gal- leries of New York, ending instead at the Hirshhorn in Washington where it became the subject of much extravagant praise. What is clear from this is that the world view of Freud's art has changed radically in the past six years, while the art itself has remained essentially the same.
Criticism has certainly altered a world view of Freud's art since my own first contribution to the subject appeared in print some 16 years ago. Prices paid for his work have advanced at least tenfold during this period and, while I would claim nothing more than consistency for my own articles on the artist, I was surprised to learn via a recent arti- cle by Bruce Bernard that the artist spurns 'the fulsome praise he receives from the new reactionaries in art journalism'. Since the charge is a specific one and the word 'reac- tionaries' is plural, I think Mr Bernard owes it to his public to name the people he — or supposed- ly the artist — has in mind here. While I imagine Mr Bernard's list is unlikely to exclude me, one wonders whether Robert Hughes — des- cribed often in the USA as a reac- tionary — or even the late Peter Fuller may not also be included. Freud is a private man, not given to Delphic utterances, who sees his work more or less exclusively as the making of art. Even before entering his seventies last year, the artist's awareness of the shortness of time and energy which may remain to him urged his productive- ness to new heights. Nor has there been any lessening of pictorial ambition. 'Lying by the Rags', 1989-90, poses extraordinary problems of viewpoint and perspective for
Painter Working, Reflection, 1993, by Lucian Freud
viewer as well as painter. While part of the artist's intention may lie in objective recording of visual information, clearly choice of subject, viewpoint and composi- tion allow his subjectivity full rein. 'Naked Woman', 1988, makes brilliant use of the diagonal run of floorboards to make the bed on which the figure lies seem almost to be in motion. There is great pictorial inven- tiveness and daring in so many of the recent paintings that a narrowing range of subject matter passes all but unnoticed.
It could be argued here also that com- pared with major figure painters of the past the artist's emotional and philosophical range is limited. While admiring the paint, the frequent originality of the composition and the energy, I find myself irritated increasingly by the deliberate grotesque- ness of much of the recent subject matter. The desire of old existentialists to shock also serves to make half the bars of old Bohemia (Soho) unvisitable. As with Fran- cis Bacon, what is still able to provide a frisson for the artist seems to follow a familiar sequence of diminishing returns.
Thus the insistent use of the obese bulk of Leigh Bowery has the boring repetitive- ness of drunken conversations. Does the human envelope of skin contain a soul? 'Nude With a Leg Up', fea- turing Bowery, reduces the model's nature to that of the dirty mattress and debris of rags on the floor. By contrast, the drooping, full-figure self-portrait of the artist has real impact simply because the artist has presence rather than mere bulk himself. For all its insistent claims, existentialism remains an ideal philosophy for the self- absorbed and those who never really grow up. While the cold edge of the best existentialist painting — Bacon and Freud gives their works a superficial gloss of supposed 20th-century rele- vance, it ensures at the same time that neither could ever be a Rem- brandt.
Nonetheless, Freud is probably as good a painter as exists any- where in the present-day world. In an age in which skill-based artistic media are increasingly spurned and marginalised, he demonstrates the continuing and unlimited potential and relevance of oil paint as a means of expression. Freud belongs to the long and majestic tradition of perceptual painting in Europe. How and why artists living in America sought to break with such practice, together with the ties of their mother cultures, forms the sub- ject of next week's review of the first of two large exhibitions in London of American art in the 20th century. As the American shows finish here in December, Freud's opens in New York. It is hard to say which will provide the more lasting impact or big- ger sense of revelation to their visitors.
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