Author Description

This book brings together the seminal group of paintings of London building sites by Frank Auerbach which are among the most profound responses made by any artist to the post-war urban landscape. These works chart the early development of Auerbach's remarkable approach to painting, for which he is celebrated as one of Britain's greatest living artists. Fascinated by the post-war rebuilding of London, Auerbach combed the city's numerous building sites with his sketchbook in hand, including St Paul's, Oxford Street, Leicester Square, and the Shell Building on the South Bank. Auerbach vividly translates the chasms of mud, shoredup earth scaffolding, and cat-walks into works which capture a powerful sense of the destruction and reconstruction inherent in the development of London's bomb sites. The book offers the first comprehensive account of this extraordinary group of paintings, which are among the most important contributions to post-war painting in Britain.