Faggionato Fine Art is delighted to announce their forthcoming exhibition of etchings by the celebrated British artist Lucian Freud. The show brings together ten figurative works ranging in date from 1990-1996. Freud began experimenting with the etching technique in the 1940’s and over the years has published fifty prints – twenty of them in the last decade. Concentrating almost exclusively on the human figure, he has developed a way of constructing softness by using a variety of etched marks ranging from sections of hatched shading to stopped-out areas of highlight. Grouped together these works demonstrate the extraordinary diversity of his print vocabulary. As in his paintings, portraits feature strongly in Freud’s etched work, and the sitters are regularly the familiar friends and family members. The small square etching of Susanna illustrates a subject Freud painted for over twenty years. Although Freud regularly painted self-portraits, his first published self-portrait print dates from 1996, Self Portrait: Reflection. This impressive image includes the characteristic hatching and highlights but the heavily worked background from which the figure emerges demonstrates a new found confidence in differentiating between surfaces. The exhibition also includes Freud’s only recent nude – the large full-length etching of Sue Tilley, titled Woman Sleeping, 1995. Unlike the all-over detail of the Self Portrait the figure floats against a blank background, creating a conflict between the implied weight of the figure and the flat plane of the blank paper. A different approach is applied to a later etching of the same sitter, Woman with an Arm Tattoo, 1996. By simply locating the figure at the lower edge of the plate, Freud avoids this tension and gives the subject added weight and presence. Born in Berlin in 1922, Freud moved to England in the 1930s. He has an international reputation as one of the most powerful contemporary figurative artists of nudes, portraits and faces. In his etchings Freud combines his creative genius with a medium that is associated with precision and control. It is the resulting tension that makes these works vivid, alive and poignant. ------------------------------------------------------------ Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10-6pm For further information and images, please contact Irene Grassi at irene.grassi@faggionato.com