Lucian Freud: New Perspectives, Exhibition, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid: 14 February-18 June 2023

Freud's celebrity has often stood in the way of critical consideration of the artist’s work and the historical contexts in which it was made. This exhibition seeks to present new perspectives on Freud’s art, focusing on his tireless and ever-searching commitment to the medium of painting.

Freud’s painting, which was incisive, subversive and on occasions shocking, focused on the representation of the human body and the portrayal of modern man. An assiduous visitor to historic museums, his work reveals a series of allusions to the great masters of the past, from Egyptian art to Ingres, Courbet, Rodin and Cézanne and encompassing Grünewald, Hals, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Daumier, Watteau and Géricault, although that connection with the past coexists with a powerful spirit of independence. Freud’s true abiding interest throughout his work was to present painting on painting - his personal meta-artistic reflection and “the intensification of reality” which he always aspired to achieve.   

The exhibition includes around 50 loans from museums and major private collections, spanning the seven decades of Freud's career.