Frank Auerbach was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931 and at the age of seven immigrated to England to avoid Nazi persecution. He studied at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955 and his first solo exhibition took place at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London in 1956. In 1986, Auerbach represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, where he received the Golden Lion award for the presentation. Subsequent solo exhibitions have taken place at the Royal Academy, the National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum and most recently in 2015-16 the Tate held a third retrospective to celebrate the artist’s 84th birthday, brought together by one of his sitters, the curator Catherine Lampert. Auerbach currently resides in North London, working from the same studio for the past fifty years.
