Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

It is both startling and disconcerting, producing some of the most powerful and moving visual images to have appeared in the last thirty years. Freud--once dubbed "the Ingres of existentialism"--has almost single-handedly redefined the figurative painting of our time. No other living artist possesses his ability to paint the texture and thinness of skin over flesh, and his distinctive portraits have a haunting quality that makes them impossible to forget. This volume, with over one hundred superb reproductions of his greatest paintings, pays tribute to one of the most original and accomplished artists of the twentieth century.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Lucian Freud, a major painter on the contemporary cultural scene, deserves greater notice outside of his adopted Britain. The grandson of Sigmund Freud and a resident of England since the Nazis drove his family from their native Germany, Freud has achieved fame for his frank and often disturbing paintings dealing with the anxieties of the modern human condition. His work often betrays the influence of the early-20th-century continental expressionists as well as parallels with the art of such contemporary British masters as Stanley Spencer and Francis Bacon. This book, designed to accompany a recent exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum, consists of 90-odd excellent color illustrations prefaced by a short essay by Hughes. Although this is an attractive introduction to Freud's art, it does not supplant Lawrence Gowing's recent and more extensive Lucian Freud (CH, Jan '83), which is equally well illustrated and is available in a quality paperback edition; on the other hand, it will attract specialists, primarily those interested in the Hughes perspective and in color plates not available in Gowing.-W.S. Rodner, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona Campus

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Robert Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia on July 28, 1938. He studied art and architecture at the University of Sydney. He pursued art criticism mostly as a sideline while painting, writing poetry and serving as a cartoonist for the weekly intellectual journal The Observer. He left Australia and spent time in Italy before settling in London, where he became a well-known critical voice and wrote for several newspapers. He was chief art critic for Time magazine for over 30 years.

He wrote several books including The Fatal Shore, American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America, Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America, Things I Didn't Know, and Rome. He also hosted an eight-part documentary about the development of modernism from the Impressionists through Warhol entitled The Shock of the New. It was seen by more than 25 million viewers when it ran first on BBC and then on PBS. He also wrote a book by the same name about the series. He died after a long illness on August 6, 2012 at the age of 74.

(Bowker Author Biography)