While the maestro himself stayed home, the second of the two official opening parties to mark the Lucian Freud retrospective at London’s Tate Modern was a glitzy affair. Guests included Jerry Hall – who once sat for Freud while heavily pregnant – Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and actor John Malkovich.
The exhibition, which is the biggest display of the artist’s work ever mounted, features 160 paintings from the full length of the 79-year-old’s career. Works range from a painting of a box of apples done when he was only 16 to a self portrait completed just last month and on which the paint is still drying.
Subjects include celebrities, family and friends. Among them are his partner Emily Bearn, a journalist 50 years his junior, and his daughters Bella, a fashion designer, and author Esther.
The notoriously party-shy Lucian begged off the opening festivities with the excuse that he was too busy painting to attend. Indeed, there is a possibility that further works, including a long-awaited portrait of pregnant supermodel Kate Moss, could be added after the show gets under way.
The show opens on Thursday at the Tate Modern, Millbank, and runs until September 22.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
