Kumu Documentary: Lucian Freud: A Self Portrait
Dir David Bickerstaff
USA 2020, 86 min
In English, with English subtitles
The British painter Lucian Freud is one of few 20th-century artists who portrayed themselves in self-portraiture with such consistency.
For the first time in history, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, brought together Lucian Freud’s self-portraits.
The exhibition (2019–2020) displayed more than 50 paintings, prints and drawings in which this modern master of British art turned his unflinching eye firmly on himself. One of the most celebrated painters of our time, Lucian Freud was also one of very few 20th-century artists who portrayed themselves with such consistency.
Spanning nearly seven decades, his self-portraits provide fascinating insight into both his psyche and his development as a painter, from his earliest portrait, painted in 1939, to the final one, executed 64 years later.
For Lucian Freud the act of “looking” was everything. This film is very much about the self, the progress of time and one man’s intense struggle with the making of art.
Featuring fascinating interviews with past models, friends and leading art experts, such as Tim Marlow (Artistic Director, Royal Academy of Arts, London) and Martin Gayford (an art critic and writer), this intensely compelling documentary reveals the life’s work of a master, an engrossing study of the dynamic of ageing and the process of self-representation.
The film was created under the unique documentary series “Exhibition on Screen”, which brings major art exhibitions, and the stories of galleries and artists, to worldwide audiences.
Gallery
