Head of E.O.W. 1959 - 1960

Curator: This is Frank Auerbach's "Head of E.O.W.", currently housed in the Tate Collections. Auerbach, born in 1931, captures a subject reduced to near abstraction. Editor: The intense layering of charcoal gives it an almost sculptural quality, as if the face is emerging from the earth itself. It’s profoundly unsettling. Curator: Indeed, the weight of material mirrors the weight of history, doesn’t it? The dark palette could echo the trauma of wartime London. Editor: Considering Auerbach's process—repeatedly building up and scraping away at the surface, this is not merely a portrait but a record of labor. Curator: The obscured features evoke the fragility and ambiguity of memory, the way faces fade and transform over time. Who is she beyond the title? Editor: It makes me think about what the intense mark-making and reworking says about the relationship between Auerbach and his subject. Curator: It leaves us contemplating the many layers of identity, both seen and unseen. Editor: Yes, and the physical effort embedded in this image speaks volumes about the act of creation itself.