David Landau 2009

Curator: Frank Auerbach's "David Landau," painted in 2009, presents us with a powerfully expressive portrait rendered in thick layers of oil paint. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: I'm immediately struck by the sheer materiality of it. The impasto is so aggressive it's almost sculptural. The colors are simultaneously vibrant and muddied, creating a kind of tense visual energy. Curator: Auerbach was known for his dense, almost labored application of paint, reworking his canvases over long periods. He believed in "trapping life" within the paint, which speaks to the depth of human connection. Do you see how the accumulation becomes more than just pigment, but a record of looking and knowing? Editor: Absolutely. The strokes aren’t just representational; they seem to be searching for form, defining and redefining the contours of the face. Note, for instance, how some marks read as structure only by association and density within the overall configuration. It’s a dynamic field. Curator: I read the overall layering of colour in the artwork and its density as deeply emotional, communicating intensity in its rawness and the enduring quality of the bond between painter and subject. Looking at how light seems both trapped and emanating, it evokes a sense of resilience and interiority. Editor: I see your point about interiority, but there's a fascinating tension between that internal world and the very visible, external process of creation. Auerbach makes the viewer keenly aware of the artist's struggle with the canvas. It’s not just about Landau’s presence, but about Auerbach's presence too, both enmeshed in paint. Curator: Yes, precisely. And what seems abstract reveals itself slowly. The process mirrors how relationships themselves solidify, building emotional weight and clarity over time, through layers of experience. Editor: Looking again, I can appreciate more acutely what is at stake. A dynamic object, created via rigorous engagement between material and its representation, ultimately revealing how time mediates understanding and visibility.