To mark the centenary of the birth of the British painter Lucian Freud (1922-2011) the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the National Gallery in London are presenting a retrospective on the artist and his work. The exhibition, which opened in October 2022 at the National Gallery, features around 50 works that span the seven decades of the career of one of the most important European artists of the 20th century.
The exhibition is divided into various sections that offer an approximately chronological survey of the painter’s evolution and subject matter. These are: "Becoming Freud", devoted to the artist’s early works which are notably figurative in the face of the prevailing abstract trends of the period; "Early portraits", works that already reveal Freud’s desire to capture the essence of his sitters; "Intimacy", which focuses on his preference for depicting people from his close circle; "Power", portraits of individuals whom he agreed to paint on the basis that they accepted his conditions for working; "The Studio", Freud’s creative space which became a subject in his art; and "Flesh", featuring the artist’s naked portraits, that reveal his profound observation of the human body and the mortality of flesh.
The exhibition includes the artwork "Girl with Roses" belonging to the British Council Collection. Founded in 1938, it holds more than more than 8,500 artworks, ranging from paintings to prints and drawings, photography, sculpture and multi-media pieces. The Collection has no permanent gallery and has been referred to as a 'museum without walls'.