Lucian Freud 1922 - 2011

A few months ago I quizzed about 50 people regarding their choices for owning a work of art by any artist, living or dead. The total responses eventually reached 64 and I was fairly amazed by the vast variety of artists chosen; way beyond the old masters and/or impressionists that I assumed would be the favorites. Narrowing it down to just one artist was difficult for some folks but, on the other hand, several people just couldn’t come up with anybody; not being at all interested in art of any kind. It was a nice little study and proved intuitive, to me at least, about the basic psychology of my friends and acquaintances. I have mostly kept these conclusions to myself but I can almost always connect the artist dots to the people who chose them in my survey. Some people surprised me but most fit into the groove I had already dug for them.

My own choice was a common one, being Claude Monet, but I think if I had narrowed the category to modern, living artists it would have been Lucian Freud. Although I had been aware of his stuff for some time I still recall a definitive exhibit of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in about 1993 that knocked my socks off. From bucolic Monet to fleshy Freud is quite a leap I know but what can I say. His paintings had, and still have, an emotional impact on me and it’s with regret that I heard that he passed away this Wednesday. He was 88.
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Update July 23, 2011: There is a great (as in terrific) "Appraisal" of Freud by Michael Kimmelman in today's New York Times. Worth the Google.