Behind Camden Town Station, summer evening 

Frank Auerbach's "Behind Camden Town Station, summer evening" is a landscape rendered not through conventional representation, but through a dense layering of oil paint. The impasto surface creates a tactile quality, almost as if the scene has been sculpted rather than painted. Auerbach’s method involves building up thick textures over time, scraping away and reapplying paint. This process reflects a struggle to capture not just the appearance of a scene, but its very essence. The buildings and structures, rendered in reddish hues and deep blues, appear to emerge from and recede into a field of ochre, challenging our perception of space. Auerbach engages with a dialogue between abstraction and figuration. The subject is discernible, yet the forms are broken down and reformed through the materiality of the paint itself. This approach invites us to consider how the physical properties of art can challenge fixed meanings and allow for a more profound engagement with the world around us. Each viewing offers a renewed interpretation.