Lucian Freud Portraits Symposium

Reflection
by Lucian Freud, 1947
Private Collection; Image: Lucian Freud Archive © Lucian Freud

Join us for an engaging and illuminating day of conversations and discussions exploring Lucian Freud, his work and the making of this exhibition.

Sarah Howgate, curator of the exhibition and Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, will give an insight into the thinking behind this blockbuster exhibition. Sarah led the development of the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition since coming up with the idea five years ago. Before his death in July 2011, Sarah liaised closely with Lucian Freud to discuss everything from the selection of paintings and layout of the exhibition, to the merchandise. Since Freud’s death, Howgate has been working with his studio assistant David Dawson, to continue creating the exhibition.

Curator William Feaver will talk about portraiture in the widest sense, exploring what it meant to Lucian Freud. Feaver is currently writing a biography of Lucian Freud. He curated the Lucian Freud retrospective at Tate Britain in 2002 and at the Museuo Correr in Venice. He worked with Freud to select works for the Constable exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2002.

Catherine Lampert, independent curator, art historian and former director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, will explore sculpture, ‘touch’ and three-dimensional thinking in Freud’s work.  She curated the Frank Auerbach exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2001. She regularly lectures at art colleges and universities. Her published works include books on Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Auguste Rodin.

Art critic and journalist Martin Gayford spent 250 hours sitting for Freud and wrote the acclaimed account of this experience in Man with a Blue Scarf. He will discuss what it was like to sit for Freud and how they occupied their time together. Martin Gayford is chief art critic for Bloomberg News. His books include The Yellow House, a narrative of nine weeks of Van Gogh's life in Arles, and Constable in Love. He has recently published A Bigger Message which focuses on David Hockney as its subject.

Poet Annie Freud, daughter of Lucian Freud and Kitty Garman, will explore her father’s love of poetry. For Lucian Freud reading and speaking poems aloud was an important part of his life, his work and his relationships. Annie remembers him creating and reciting poems to her as she sat for his paintings. Annie’s first full collection of poetry The Best Man Who Ever Was was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in 2007 and received the Glen Dimplex New Writers' Award (Poetry).

The day includes a ticket to the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition and a drinks reception.

Book tickets:

• Call 020 7306 0055
• Visit the Gallery in person