Frank Auerbach, British-German painter who fled the Nazis, dies aged 93
'It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and do something other than paint'. Tributes pour in to 'one of the few great and seminal artists of our time'
Beloved British-German artist Frank Helmut Auerbach died peacefully at his London home on Monday, aged 93.
Born in Berlin on 29 April 1931, Auerbach was a Kindertransport refugee from Nazi Germany who arrived in Britain in 1939 aged just 8 years old. Both his parents were murdered at Auschwitz.
He was renowned as one of the most significant post-war painters working in the UK and was a contemporary and friend of fellow artists Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff.
Auerbach studied at St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art after the war from 1948 to 1955.
Michael Newman, chief executive, The Association of Jewish Refugees, told Jewish News: “The AJR was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of celebrated artist Frank Auerbach. Frank’s vivacious personality and remarkable works of art resonated across the generations. He is a shining example of the huge cultural impact made by the Jewish refugees from central Europe made to British society.”3
BBC Radio 4 journalist and broadcaster John Wilson wrote on Twitter/X: “Frank Auerbach. What a life, such incredible dedication to art.”
The Tate gallery posted: “We are deeply saddened to hear that Frank Auerbach has died. Auerbach’s paintings have been described as some of the most resonant, inventive and perpetually alive works of art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Since his early works, his intentions have been consistent: ‘To record the life that seemed to me to be passionate and exciting and disappearing all the time’.”
Art historian Richard Morris has described Auerbach as “one of the major draughtsman of his age. He was the master of the hard-won image; he drew his sitters over and over again, erasing the image after each session so that only an outline remained and repeated the process until he felt he had captured the person’s essence.”
Renowned London gallery The Courtauld, which staged a major exhibition of his work earlier this year, wrote: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Frank Auerbach (1931-2024). We were honoured to stage a major exhibition of his earlier work earlier this year, where he also recorded a rare interview reflecting on his life and artistic legacy.”
The National Gallery in central London said: “We are saddened to learn of the death of artist Frank Auerbach. Auerbach regularly visited the Gallery to sketch works in our collection while he was a student. He went on to produce hundreds of drawings based on National Gallery works, a selection of which were shown in our 1995 exhibition, ‘Frank Auberach and the National Gallery: Working After the Masters’. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.”
The Ben Uri gallery in north London wrote: “There are and will continue to be extensive obituaries recording his remarkable career and rarity of talent which elevated him to be recognised as one of the few great and seminal artists of our time. This note is simply to express our sadness, admiration, respect and endless appreciation of his long-standing support for Ben Uri and its repositioning to craft a secure, meaningful and purposeful 21st century future in parallel with its past.
“We owe our fine collection of his works to him and his long standing dealer and friend Geoffrey Parton and these works will be a constant tribute to a rare man whose interest was solely in his practice rather than himself. May he rest in peace and his memory be a blessing.”
Frank Auerbach is survived by his son Jacob Auerbach.
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