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Lucian Freud, Two Plants, 1977 – 1980

Lucian Freud: l’atelier is the first major exhibition of the artist’s work in France since 1987. The four sections of the exhibition are centred around the theme of the studio and include his large interiors, self-portraits, copies of old masters, etchings, drawings and his signature large-scale fleshy nudes.

Although dominated by nude models in situ, the section “interiors/exteriors” looks beyond the studio into the artist’s garden, with its shiny aspidistra leaves and deep rich greenery, or fragments of urban landscape, reminiscent of children’s book illustrations in their accuracy.

Freud was famously quoted as saying “I want paint to work as flesh”, and the idea of the studio is used as a metaphor for his close, almost obsessive relationship to the rendering of his models in paint. The final room of the show “As Flesh” is particularly striking with large format nudes of Leigh Bowery and Big Sue in their statuesque fleshiness. Leigh Under The Skylight, a composition of Leigh Bowery standing larger than life on a table looks down at visitors from one wall. The painting doesn’t deny the relative domesticity of the locale (still the artist’s studio) but still manages to capture a monumental and somehow timeless figure, almost gladiatorial in its strength and defiance.

Michael Glover writes a good review in the Independent, suggesting that the show attempts to conceptualise Freud for a French audience. He might be right - judging by the pure immediacy of paint on canvas, Freud is more about the paint than he is about the concepts.

Lucian Freud: l’atelier is on at the Pompidou Centre until 19/07/10

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