Lucian Freud Paintings (Revised Edition) [Paperback]

Robert Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

In his highly acclaimed text, Robert Hughes points out that the reality pursued in Freud's paintings goes far beyond naturalism.

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. 100+ illustrations

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; Revised Edition edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500275351
• ISBN-13: 978-0500275351
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A definitve monograph, June 28, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lucian Freud Paintings (Revised Edition) (Paperback)

Every great artist deserves a great biographer: Bacon had David Sylvester, Giocometti had Sylvester AND James Lord, and Lucien Freud has Robert Hughes. Hughes' generous text is richly detailed and captures the mood of Freud's heavily impastoed works with turns of phrase that become as important as the art. To see the change in Freud's technique and approach to the figure from his early works to his current larger than life theatrical style is jolting. Always commited to portraiture his paintings have grown from the tightly surfaced, tiny but well known head of his friend Francis Bacon, to his current full figures as viewed from bizarre vantage. His brush technique has become more coarse and in doing so he is creating figures that, while monumental, feel as thogh they pulsate on the canvas. Freud is one of the important painters of our time and this book justifies that position on every level. A scholarly - yet pulsatile - study of a modern genius.

34 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Fascinating Freud Figures", February 22, 2000

By 

Paul J. Williams (Phillidelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lucian Freud Paintings (Revised Edition) (Paperback)

Any book containing the work of Lucian Freud, I feel, writes itself. Not as an insult to the author, but as a testiment to the painter himself.

The full page color photos do justice to this great man, as well as a book can.

The author does an acceptional job of sumarizing and analyzing the painter's Life and work.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars images, August 23, 2007

By 

C. Robert Friedman "GA Review" (Savannah, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lucian Freud Paintings (Revised Edition) (Paperback)

Freud's work primarily through photographs of his paintings. However, the text is weak on chronology, development and current status of his painting technique. ...A good intro for the person who is not familiar with his work.