LATE STAGE

A posthumous exhibition in Berlin celebrates the work of figurative painter Frank Auerbach, who was born in the city but never showed there

- HANNAH SILVER

Born in Berlin in 1931, artist Frank Auerbach was sent to England alone as an eight-year-old refugee to escape Nazi Germany, leaving behind his Jewish parents, who would later lose their lives in a concentration camp. Settling in the country permanently, Auerbach would go on to study at the Royal College of Art, developing a distinctive style that involved repeatedly scraping layers of wet paint off his canvases, before beginning again, lending his works the visceral, evocative edge that he is celebrated for.