Modernists and Mavericks : Bacon, Freud, Hockney and the London Painters

Martin Gayford’s masterful account of painting in London from the Second World War to the 1970s, illustrated by documentary photographs and the works themselves The development of painting in London from the Second World War to the 1970s has never before been told before as a single narrative. R. B. Kitaj’s proposal, made in 1976, that there was a “substantial School of London” was essentially correct but it caused confusion because it implied that there was a movement or stylistic group at work, when in reality no one style could cover the likes of Francis Bacon and also Bridget Riley. Modernists and Mavericks explores this period based on an exceptionally deep well of firsthand interviews, often unpublished, with such artists as Victor Pasmore, John Craxton, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Allen Jones, R. B. Kitaj, Euan Uglow, Howard Hodgkin, Terry Frost, Gillian Ayres, Bridget Riley, David Hockney, Frank Bowling, Leon Kossoff, John Hoyland, and Patrick Caulfield. But Martin Gayford also teases out the thread weaving these individual lives together and demonstrates how and why, long after it was officially declared dead, painting lived and thrived in London. Simultaneously aware of the influences of Jackson Pollock, Giacometti, and (through the teaching passed down at the major art school) the traditions of Western art from Piero della Francesca to Picasso and Matisse, the postwar painters were bound by their confidence that this ancient medium could do fresh and marvelous things, and explored in their diverse ways, the possibilities of paint. The Development Of Painting In London From The Second World War To The 1970s Is The Story Of Interlinking Friendships, Shared Experiences And Artistic Concerns Among A Number Of Acclaimed Artists, Including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Gillian Ayres, Frank Bowling And Howard Hodgkin. Drawing On Extensive First-hand Interviews, Many Previously Unpublished, With Important Witnesses And Participants, The Art Critic Martin Gayford Teases Out The Thread Connecting These Individual Lives, And Demonstrates How Painting Thrived In London Against The Backdrop Of Soho Bohemia In The 1940s And 1950s And Swinging London In The 1960s. He Shows How, Influenced By Such Different Teachers As David Bomberg And William Coldstream, And Aware Of The Work Of Contemporaries Such As Jackson Pollock As Well As The Traditions Of Western Art From Piero Della Francesca To Picasso And Matisse, The Postwar Painters Were Allied In Their Confidence That This Ancient Medium, In Opposition To Photography And Other Media, Could Do Fresh And Marvellous Things. They Asked The Question What Can Painting Do? And Explored In Their Diverse Ways, But With Equal Passion, The Possibilities Of Paint. Introduction -- 1. Young Lucian: art in wartime London -- -- 2. Pope Francis -- -- 3. Euston Road in Camberwell -- -- 4. Spirit in the mass: the Borough Polytechnic -- -- 5. Girl with roses -- -- 6. Leaping into the void -- -- 7 Life into art: Bacon and Freud in the 1950s -- -- 8. Two climbers roped together -- -- 9. What makes the modern home so different? -- -- 10. An arena in which to act -- -- 11. The situation in London, 1960 -- -- 12. The artist thinks: Hockney and his contemporaries -- -- 13. The grin without the cat: Bacon and Freud in the 1960s -- -- 14. American connections -- -- 15. Mysterious conventionality -- -- 16. Portrait surrounded by artistic devices -- -- 17. Shimmering and dissolving -- -- 18. The non-existence of action ---- Epilogue.