Martin Gayford has made a living out of talking and writing about artists and in his latest book Modernists & Mavericks he scrutinises a number of painters including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach, who have become known as the London Painters.
Although they formed alliances, and were friends who often fell out and bore long-held grudges, Gayford was at pains to point that their approach to paintings varied hugely, and they would certainly not have described themselves as a movement.
Bacon acted as the catalyst for change transforming a gloomy post-war London scene into one of the centres of the art world. Self-taught and untamed his canvases were a game changer. Gayford said Bacon had a general disdain for most art and, “set stratospherically high standards for himself.”
And while Bacon tended to use his imagination and images culled from newspapers, magazines and the Old Masters as sources of inspiration Freud always insisted on having the models present as he, "painstakingly painted the psychological states of his subjects onto the canvas."
Along with David Hockney and Peter Blake this diverse group of pioneering, artists forced the critics to reassess “London” as their work sent shock waves out throughout the world.
If you missed this you might like to go to Event 313, The Renaissance: History, Fiction and Art at 11.30am on Friday, 1 June