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The Gamble

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Arts series about the connection between risk and creativity.

The Gamble: Series 1

The Gamble: Series 1: Low Life

18/10/2017

Low Life

Series 1

BBC Radio 4 - The Gamble, Series 1, Low Life

For the painter Lucian Freud, every brush stroke was a risk.

For Lucian Freud, every brushstroke was a risk. How did his dangerous and precarious existence contribute to the production of some of the greatest 20th-century figurative art?

A three part series about the connection between risk and creativity, narrated by the actor Noma Dumezweni. 

For the painter Lucian Freud, every brush stroke was a risk. He led a dangerous and precarious existence. How did this contribute to the production of some of greatest figurative art of the 20th century? 

Freud placed staggering and catastrophic bets on horses throughout his life, often losing hundreds of thousands of pounds. He explored Soho after dark with fellow painter Francis Bacon and he had brushes with gangsters. Seemingly these activities "emptied" Freud and were a necessary preparation for work in the studio.

David Dawson, Freud's assistant from the 1990s until his death, says, "He would gamble away until he had nothing left and that somehow freed him up to then start painting again." 

In the studio, Freud's approach to life was at its most intense. Spending months on paintings, it was always a slow, sometimes tortuous process and sitters knew there was a real possibility that their portrait might never be finished. 

But for decades Freud's career was in the doldrums. His fleshy portraits were deemed unfashionable by the art world. James Kirkman, his dealer at this period, says, "I remember working at the Marlborough Gallery in the 60s, which represented Lucian. Lucian was definitely the most unpopular of the artists." 

Featuring the art critic Martin Gayford, Freud's former partner Jacquetta Eliot and "the Gentleman's Bookmaker", Victor Chandler. 

So Lucian Freud, the skin red around the white of the 
White English skin, truth no lies, low life.
(from 'Lucian Freud - Bigger the brush bigger the painting' by John Lalor)

Produced by Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

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Arts series about the connection between risk and creativity. Noma Dumezweni narrates.

Three-part arts series about the connection between risk and creativity, narrated by actor Noma Dumezweni.

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