Andrew Tift and Lucian Freud ‘Portrait of Kitty’ 1948 – 2007
Andrew Tift working on the ‘Kitty’ series at his studio in Walsall.
Front cover images: Andrew Tift, ‘Kitty’ 2006 © Andrew Tift. Lucian Freud, ‘Portrait of Kitty’ 1948–49 © Lucian Freud.
In 2005 the artist Andrew Tift contacted the Collections Curator, Jo Digger, at The New Art Gallery Walsall and asked if it would be possible to visit Kitty Godley with a view to painting her portrait. This was the start of a project which had been developing in the artist’s mind for many years. Kitty Godley was born Kitty Garman in 1926, she was the daughter of Kathleen Garman, who donated the fabulous Garman Ryan Collection to Walsall and of Jacob Epstein one of Britain’s greatest sculptors. In 1948 Kitty married the artist Lucian Freud and she became his model for several years, the subject of numerous art works including the painting of her in the Garman Ryan Collection. It was this painting which was to be the major influence behind Andrew Tift’s fascination with painting Kitty’s portrait. Developing over nearly three years the project became a whole series of amazing studies of Kitty, now in her eighties. The first painting, a triptych, enabled Andrew to win the coveted National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award in 2006. The work was subsequently purchased for Walsall’s collections with a full grant from The Art Fund.
Interview with Andrew Tift When and why did you decide to become an artist? The usual route really. I enjoyed art a lot at school, I also visited my Uncle who had a studio in Cheltenham, he was a graphic designer and I loved the studio and everything about it. My parents were also very supportive. My father worked in the steel industry near Walsall and he never once questioned me being an artist, he was never one to say ‘get a real job’ or anything like that. There was never really any ‘road to Damascus’ for me it just sort of evolved.
Andrew Tift, ‘Kitty’ 2006 © Andrew Tift. Presented by the Art Fund 2006.
How and why did you start working in the area of portraits? In the early nineties it clicked with me that I was most interested in people and I saw a magazine article in a Sunday paper about the National Portrait Gallery and it just sort of clicked that that was what I wanted to do. I’ve had an obsession with the BP Portrait Award for many years and I’ve exhibited in it so many times and there have been so many spin offs and developments as a result of that.
What sort of role has the Garman Ryan Collection played in your development as an artist? Going back to when I was a teenager I said to Mum and Dad ‘I quite fancy being an artist’ so they said ‘Lets go and look at the local gallery in Walsall’. I remember seeing posters around town with Lucian Freud’s painting of Kitty on them and I really liked it so I went along. I was really nervous, I was only sixteen and it was a bit like going into a Cork St gallery, very intimidating but when I got in I loved it. Even though I didn’t know much about art at the time I recognised many of the names and I thought ‘Fancy that, all these being in Walsall’. How important is the use of photography in the creation of your portraits? I have an equal love for photography and painting even though I am a painter. What I am looking for is an objective reality, an unquestioning, unflinching realism which you can get in photography but also in historical art. It’s the tradition of realism that I’m interested in. Many people talk about photography as cheating but I just see it as a way of making the kind of image that I want, it’s a stepping stone. Artists from renaissance onwards have used lenses and machines like the camera obscura to produce the images they want, I am just continuing that tradition.
What is the influence of early black and white television interviews on your tryptich of ‘Kitty’? The feel of the portrait was inspired by John Freeman’s “Face to Face” television interview series from the 1960’s. It was filmed in black and white with the camera right up into the face scrutinising the interviewee in intense, microscopic detail from different angles. Its quite shocking even today. I’ve tried to echo this in my painting. In ‘Kitty’ the three different portraits are in process of communication. One face is receiving information another is about to communicate it. It’s all about conversation, reception of ideas and communication. We were talking together all the time I was doing the photographic session with her.
Andrew Tift from ‘Kitty’ series 2007 © Andrew Tift
What was it that first gave you the idea to paint Kitty’s portrait? I had been thinking for a long time about making a series of paintings and drawings of Kitty Garman. Initially, I very much liked the idea of painting a model that has sat for Lucian Freud. The fact that both Kitty and I have strong and arbitrary links with Walsall and in a sense have been drawn together by the gallery is also an enjoyable connection. I keep a note book with hundreds of ideas in it and this one had been around for a long time so it had stood the test of time. I like documenting a person’s life near the end before it all evaporates. I think that there are strong links between mortality and portraiture. I love painting older people, its really sad that everything fizzles away, people can live on in portraits. I think that everyone should have their portrait painted before they
die. Older people have their life and experiences imprinted on their face and Kitty’s face is wonderful. How does the work of Lucian Freud relate to your work? Freud has always been one of my biggest influences, especially his earlier, tighter work which he produced around the same time that he was painting Kitty. Although our work does not look similar I feel that we both have the same meticulous nature which is very relevant and sympathetic to this series of portraits. I saw Freud’s work in the Whitechapel exhibition when he showed massive portraits of Leigh Bowery – some sitters are just a gift on a plate. Kitty was for me. I like Freud’s tight stuff but also the later much looser stuff. He is like Rembrandt and Titian; their work loosens up later in life.
What is it that has given you the drive and inspiration to do so many portraits of Kitty? I really wanted to explore her personality and I wanted to do a predominantly black and white exhibition. I started doing charcoal drawings in America. They were so relatively quick and I was so pleased with them. Most of my work is hugely time consuming and meticulous. There is really something pure about black and white, very basic. Charcoal is so raw, a very crude medium really but also very
Image left: Andrew Tift, Kitchen from ‘Kitty’ Series 2006 © Andrew Tift.
subtle as well. I wanted to explore one person’s identity using interiors as well as portraits. We all have lots of different faces, that’s why I did the triptych. Lots of different dimensions and angles. Objects reinforce a sitter’s identity. Kitty’s kitchen and sitting room go hand in hand with her personality. It’s a very lived in bohemian house which she is very comfortable in and everything is just right for her. Andrew Tift was interviewed at his home in Walsall by Jo Digger, April 2007.
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