Frank Auerbach and George Baselitz
The Courtauld/ White Cube, Bermondsey
An essay by Estelle Simpson
Two coinciding shows in London provided the opportunity to consider the state of figurative abstraction today, highlighting the works of artists who live to paint. Despite being closely linked in style, the exhibitions provided glimpses of each artist that demonstrated how unique and uncomparable they are in their own expressionate approach. Both expose vulnerability and raw emotion in ardent works. Tender and empathetic, from the murky layers of destruction and creation, time accrued in his drafting process allows Auerbach to reach the heart of his subjects. An air of solemnity and slowness circulates the arena of charcoal heads, yet the marks enact a flurry of madness, which made for a captivating experience as the veiwer. In a much lighter and graphic manner, there is also a brooding detatchment in Baselitz works, conveyed through seated couples composed on the same canvas or dyptychs. Despite a presence within one work, vast emptied areas of flat colour make them seem not remotely connected at all. Reaching beyond human, other works involving animal muses see any kind of folk-loric associations sabotaged in a staging which economically describes their existence. Whilst outspoken and controversial in his artistic career, this man still claims he has a ‘Confession’ to make.
A group of charcoal drawings etched by Frank Auerbach in his mid twenties share an extraordinary vision, pushing his the limitations of the mediums, these pieces on paper stand the test of time. Insighting a lasting grandeur, the charcoal heads are equally as direct in mark making as the artist’s paintings, some of which are coupled with the drawings on show. However the preliminary drawings captivated me much more, intimating a labour intensive exploration through intricate reworking, manipulation, and erasure. The accumulation of marks of a prolonged construction provides richly textured results. Brilliantly, Auerbach sorts to express all his subjects in motion, and this movement exposes a lengthy period of struggle that pertains to a process of excavation and scaffolding. Emerging from darkness, figures feel both present in definite mark making and yet also absent in their chilling, glazed over look. His reliance on a clean, straight line of the lips inhibits any suggestion of strong emotion, and each sitters averted glance makes for a haunting impression. While figures hide behind a veil of stoicism, this remoteness is complicated by Auerbach’s ammunition of vigourous knotted slashes and frenzied marks indicitive of form. But just like humans, paper is not bullet proof. Torn paper does not inhibit the artist’s battle with his mediums, as patched up areas entice additional character.
Pieces address a time when people were remaking thier lives after the upending of war. With all the movement and energy the neo-expressionist genre embodies, these drawings achieve with an equal capacity the sculptural rendering his heavy oil works are renowned for. The ponderous look that draws into the piece, closing off, is unallowed any stillness as heavy burnishing or erasing pushes out, breaking up the clean line work of the formal precision. Auerbach engages with spontineaeity and motion despite working on pieces at length; with rigourous reworking, he is able to enfuse the qualities often related to immediancy. This duality results in a definite presence taken up by the sitter, yet each figure is also disturbed by an other-ness.
There is no regard for stoicism in Baselitz ouevre which makes a mockery of each form through the absurdity of the artist’s upside down vision. Repetition in Baselitz show evokes more stillness, as continuous images of seated figures never shift position from one canvas to the next. Trapped in similar arrangments, the motionless figures are loosly structured, defintely more fidgity in their lightness and spindly form. One new work even recalls the actions of Pollock or De Kooning, mirrored through crazed black toned strokes loosely thrown at the canvas beneath. The clarity of this association reveals how relevant Baselitz painting inspiration experienced during his youth as it holds an influence over the work for him even now.
In this exhibition, his consistent use of inverted gestures feels less gimicky, a prespective which aids the understanding of distance between subjects. He provides more than just human forms as the last room brings together a collection of animal muses. Applied to natural effiges, this continuous mission of inversion further highlights an interspace between our own relationship with animals. Perhaps, it gives a sense of a challenging of the thoughts, dreams, premonitions and projections that we invest these beings with. It almost releases them from centuries of mythologising. Animals are portrayed as diaphanous entities, such as ‘Blue Eyes Deer’ presented on a muted grey backdrop, resisting the dimension of any recurring narrative themes they are associated with. Perhaps his idiosyncracies in style are an addiction prized over the immensity of subject matter.
Baselitz inssessant integrity impacts these works with a confession of his own physical vulnerability. Despite the giant scale of these canvases, figurative forms recess in proportion from those of his earlier work, described in frail lines. Works encapsulate trademark techniques but in much less cluttered and emptied compositions that even evidence the canvas beneath. Despite the morbid revelations of his own mortality in his advancing age, the palette is still dedicated to vibrant expressionate hues. The usual torrents of his ouevre may be consistent within these pieces, yet with heightened lucidity, each provide spaces for existentiality to exist amidst the abstrated vision.