The son of German-Jewish refugees, Michael Podro was Head of Art History at Camberwell School of Art (1961-67), when he and Auerbach became friends. Podro read English at Cambridge, then studied at the Slade School of Art for a year, before embarking on a PhD under noted art historian Ernst Gombrich and philosopher Richard Wollheim. Podro first wrote about Auerbach's work in 1969. Later, reviewing the artist's 2001 Royal Academy retrospective, Podro observed: 'Auerbach's work has a constantly self-revising dynamic which never allows the subject to disengage from the distinctive properties of the painter's medium'.
Frank Auerbach: Works from the Ben Uri Collection
Forthcoming exhibition
