LONDON - A remarkable series of hauntingly beautiful, large-scale drawings by Frank Auerbach (born 1931), will be presented together for the first time at The Courtauld Gallery in Spring 2024.

During his early years as a young artist in post-war London, Frank Auerbach produced one of his most remarkable bodies of work: a series of large-scale portrait heads made in charcoal. Auerbach spent months on each drawing, working and reworking them during numerous sessions with his sitters.

The marks of this prolonged and vigorous process of creation are evident in the finished drawings, which are richly textured and layered. Sometimes, he would even break through the paper and patch it up before carrying on. Auerbach’s heads emerge from the darkness of the charcoal as vital and alive, having come through a lengthy period of struggle – the image repeatedly created and destroyed. The character of the drawings speaks profoundly of their times as people were remaking their lives after the destructions and upending of war.

Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads will be the first time Auerbach’s extraordinary post-war drawings, made in the 1950s and early 1960s, have been brought together as a comprehensive group. They will be shown together with a selection of paintings he made of the same sitters; for him, painting and drawing have always been deeply entwined.

The exhibition will be a unique opportunity to see early masterpieces by one of the world’s most celebrated living artists.

Supported by the Huo Family Foundation and The Garcia Family Foundation.

Frank Auerbach (b.1931), Self-Portrait, 1958, charcoal and chalk on paper, private collection © the artist, courtesy of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London.

Frank Auerbach (b.1931), Head of Julia II, 1960, charcoal and chalk on paper, private collection © the artist, courtesy of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London.

Frank Auerbach (b.1931), Head of Gerda Boehm, 1961, charcoal and chalk on paper, private collection, courtesy of Eykyn Maclean © the artist, courtesy of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London.

Frank Auerbach (b.1931), Head of EOW, 1960, charcoal and chalk on paper, The Whitworth, The University of Manchester © the artist, courtesy of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London.