Richard Calvocoressi

In 2023, Gagosian Gallery presented their exhibition Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, at their gallery in Grosvenor Hill, London. Curated by art historian Richard Calvocoressi, the exhibition Friends and Relations contextualized key works by four era-defining artists.

Taking as its inspiration a famous John Deakin photograph of the fourpainters in Soho in 1963 (along with much younger painter Timothy Behrens), the exhibition presented over forty key paintings by these four artists from the so-called ‘School of London’ and elucidates the connections between their respective practices.

Portraiture was at the heart of Freud’s, Bacon’s, Auerbach’s, and, less directly, Andrews’s practices. The exhibition’s title echoes not only the four artists’ camaraderie and interrelationships, but also the intimate relationships between artist and sitter, including artist and lover, partner, and offspring.

Richard Calvocoressi is a scholar and art historian. He has served as curator at the Tate, London, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and Director of the Henry Moore Foundation. He joined the Gagosian as Director, London in 2015.

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