Is Lucian Freud’s Death the End of Figurative Painting?

Marching through the Met a few weeks ago, my family found ourselves suddenly in a room full of works by Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, and Lucian Freud. I motioned to my wife that we should shuffle through quickly to avoid troubling our 17-month-old son Jamie and 5-year-old son Alex, who just wanted to see some more of his favorite artist, Picasso. I remember thinking that, of the three, only Bacon was gone. Now, only Auerbach remains. Lucian Freud’s death a few days ago after a short illness at the age of 88 still is only sinking into the consciousness of those who think about art. Freud literally changed the face (and body) of portraiture in ways that even Bacon didn’t. Now that Freud is gone, some are asking if his end somehow marks the end of figurative painting itself. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Is Lucian Freud’s Death the End of Figurative Painting?"

[Image: Lucian Freud. Reflection (self portrait) (detail), 1985.]

Why Fallingwater Still Matters 75 Years Later

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, especially in the arts. Paint, sculpt, or build it right and others will try to follow your path. That truth makes Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic home known as Fallingwater unique in that it has never been copied. “Fallingwater has no progeny,” Lynda Waggoner writes in Fallingwater, published to celebrate the 75^th year of the home’s existence. “It is a singular work that appeared almost without warning, its legacy difficult to define.” Despite that difficulty, Waggoner and other essayists define the legacy of Fallingwater by looking back to its origin in 1936 and then looking forward to how Wright’s integration of artifice and nature continues to matter, maybe more now than ever. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Why Fallingwater Still Matters 75 Years Later."

[Image: View of Fallingwater from below second falls. © Christopher Little from Fallingwater by Lynda Waggoner, Rizzoli 2011.]

[Many thanks to Rizzoli for providing me with the image above and a review copy of Fallingwater by Lynda Waggoner.]