Jake

Jake Auerbach (b. 1958) is a producer and documentary film maker, whose work includes a series on contemporary artists such as Paula Rego, Allen Jones, Lucian Freud and his father Frank Auerbach. This lithograph is part of a series of etchings of friends and family entitled Seven Portraits, drawn by the artist with a Japanese screwdriver bought from his local Woolworth's. The etchings were made to accompany the deluxe edition of Robert Hughes’ Frank Auerbach monograph in 1990 and were proofed and printed by Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints.

The portrait of Jake demonstrates a strong similarity to Auerbach’s expressive impasto painting. In etching, the longer the plate is exposed to acid, the more deeply-bitten the resulting lines will be. Jake’s plate was initially bitten for over four hours, then Auerbach added further lines and the plate was bitten for another nine hours, culminating in a thickness of form which distinguishes it from the other sitters in Seven Portraits.