Giacometti and Frank Auerbach

In this book, which compares and contrasts the work of these two exceptional artists, Edward Lucie-Smith examines the changed but still vital role of portraiture in the art of our time.It is particularly interesting that the upcoming exhibition of Giacometti's work at the National Portrait Gallery focuses on Giacometti's activity as a portraitist, in both painting and sculpture. It coincides with a major retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain of paintings by Frank Auerbach. Though Auerbach has tackled a range of other subjects, urban landscapes, interiors and nudes, he is perhaps best known for his intensely studied images of people who are in one way or another close to him.Portraiture has not been, in general, one of the main subjects of Modernist art - if any genre of art seemed truly passe-iste when the Modern Movement was at its height, it was this one. Both Giacometti and Auerbach offer striking exceptions to the general rule. The human image - the very specific human image, reflection of a unique personality - is a central artistic theme for them both.The rules of traditional portrait painting are, however, overturned. The artist chooses his subjects.They don't choose him. Usually his subjects are intimately known, members of his immediate circle. Both Giacometti and Auerbach portray the same sitters over and over again, trying - so it seems - to catch some elusive essence. The paintings are about as far as you can get from a portrait snapshot. Further still, perhaps, from the kind of flattering, polished likenesses created by professional photographers in their studios.