Projects

Frank Auerbach has been making portrait drawings since the 1950s — works he has always considered important and freestanding, distinct from his paintings. By turns eerie, enigmatic and hauntingly tender, they demand their own sustained attention. This book gives them that: 130 drawings selected across seven decades, divided chronologically and by subject, set into dedicated sections interspersed throughout the essays. The structure creates two modes of reading — the drawing sections can be moved through as a picture book, or encountered as part of a longer engagement with the text. The typeface is Ludwig throughout: a humanist sans serif whose varying stroke weights and rejection of perpendicular geometry speak directly to the character of the drawings themselves. Printed 4×4 on Munken Lynx 170gsm, its textured surface chosen to echo the tactile quality of the paper in Auerbach’s originals. The french-fold dust jacket, when removed and unfolded, reveals a full drawing by Auerbach.