Darren Almond Anal 2023

Anal is one of a suite of prints by Darren Almond that takes the discarded painting rags of Lucian Freud as its subject, transforming the quotidian tools of the acclaimed painter, who died in 2011, into an elegiac votive offering. Realised across nine lithographic prints, the traces and histories of painter, studio and sitter here converge to create a painterly tableau that speaks of absence and presence, record and memory.

An invitation to visit Freud’s studio following the painter’s death provided Almond with a rare glimpse into the material remains of another artist’s working life. Gravitating towards the peripheries of the studio and the piles of abandoned cloths scattered throughout the space, Almond photographed the rags that had been used to clean brushes – prosaic and expendable working tools that had quietly absorbed the residue of this great painter’s practice. Recognising these remnants as being imbued with the memory of painterly gesture, Almond transposed the resulting images into a series of remarkable lithographic prints.

Anal is among the five smaller-scale prints from this series that each take their title from Sigmund Freud’s ‘psychosexual stages of development’: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, and Genital. In these prints, each swatch of cloth is stained with accretions of discarded oil paint in fleshy, bodily tones – seen here together, the shapes and colours achieve their own inner tension. As the scraps of fabric twist and writhe, vortex-like whirlpools that draw the eye deep into the composition resolve in a hypnotic gesture of push and pull.

Produced with Edition Copenhagen, one of the world’s leading lithographic workshops, Almond’s images are translated into subtle prints that test the boundaries of the photo-lithographic process. Together, the prints become a provisional memorial, allowing intimate access to Freud’s working environment and creative process. In this way, they form a portrait that subverts the traditional notion of portraiture – shifting the gaze from sitter or painter onto the overlooked tools of artistic expression.