Frank Auerbach: Royal academy of arts, London.(Brief Article)

A startling feature of the otherwise straightforward catalogue that accompanies Frank Auerbach's recent show is its frontispiece. A double-page, black-and-white photo spread shows the painter in his studio last year: his head in close-up, a defiant anxiety in his eyes made more striking by the presence behind him of what appears to be a hangman's noose.

Does this grim object allude to the artist's state of mind on the eve of his first full retrospective since 1978? Is it a ghoulish joke, perhaps, by the photographer, the late Bruce Bernard? Or simply some necessary if unusual element ...

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