Major Lucian Freud retrospective opens in Madrid Feb. 14

Lucian Freud, ‘Reflection with Two Children (Self-portrait),’ 1965 oil on canvas, 91 by 91cm. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

Lucian Freud, ‘Reflection with Two Children (Self-portrait),’ 1965 oil on canvas, 91 by 91cm. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

MADRID – The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, in collaboration with The National Gallery, London, will present a retrospective on the British painter Lucian Freud (1922-2011) to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth. Lucian Freud: New Perspectives opens at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza on February 14 and continues through June 18.

Curated by Daniel Herrmann in London and Paloma Alarco in Madrid, this exhibition brings together more than 50 works spanning the seven-decade career of one of the most important European artists of the 20th century. The extensive accompanying catalog, which has texts by the curators and contributions by experts on Freud’s work and by contemporary artists, poses new questions on the relevance of the artist’s work with the aim of introducing it to younger generations.

Lucian Freud, ‘The Painter’s Room,’ 1944 oil on canvas, 62.2 by 76.2cm. Private collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

Lucian Freud, ‘The Painter’s Room,’ 1944 oil on canvas, 62.2 by 76.2cm. Private collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

Exhibiting Lucian Freud’s work in the context of two historic museums allows it to be shown as an uninterrupted continuation of the past. Freud was an assiduous visitor to the world’s leading art museums and his work reveals a series of allusions to the great masters of the past, from Holbein to Cranach, Hals, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Watteau, Ingres, Courbet, Rodin or Cezanne, although these connections coexist with a powerfully independent approach. The new perspective adopted by the exhibition, which is the first major retrospective to be organized since Freud’s death in 2011, focuses attention on his lifelong commitment to the essence of painting.

Lucian Freud, ‘Girl with Roses,’ 1947-1948 oil on canvas, 106 by 75.6cm. Courtesy of the British Council collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images


Lucian Freud, ‘Girl with Roses,’ 1947-1948 oil on canvas, 106 by 75.6cm. Courtesy of the British Council collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

Subversive, incisive and on occasions shocking, Lucian Freud’s painting, which ran contrary to the abstract and conceptual trends that prevailed at the time when it was created, always focused on the depiction of the human body and on the portrayal of modern man. Freud’s true abiding interest throughout his work was to present painting on painting – his personal meta-artistic reflection – and what he deemed the “intensification of reality” that he always strove to achieve.

Lucian Freud, ‘Leigh with Taffeta Skirt,’ 1993 oil on canvas, 81.3 by 82.5cm. Private collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

Lucian Freud, ‘Leigh with Taffeta Skirt,’ 1993 oil on canvas, 81.3 by 82.5cm. Private collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is the only Spanish museum that has works by Lucian Freud in its collection; a total of five, all of them included in this exhibition. Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza was one of the first private collectors to focus on the artist’s work: he and the painter established close ties and Freud painted him twice. The lengthy posing sessions of the type to which the artist always subjected his sitters fostered their friendship, which was a long-lasting one. In addition, Watteau’s painting Pierrot content (circa 1712), which forms the background of one of these portraits and belongs to the collection of the Museo Thyssen, provided the inspiration for another of Freud’s paintings.

Visit the website of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and see its dedicated page for Lucian Freud: New Perspectives.