Artwork Title: Benefits Supervisor Sleeping

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, 1995

Lucian Freud

Lucian Freud has made a lot of iconic portraits, even the one of Kate Moss, during her pregnancy in 2002, which would have certainly been on this list if there wasn’t for an even more famous painting by Freud – Benefits Supervisor Sleeping from 1995. The painting represents a Job Centre supervisor Sue Tiley, who used to weigh around 127 kilograms at the time. She was introduced to Freud by the Australian performer Leigh Bowery, who used to be Freud’s model as well. Freud’s fascination with Tiley’s body is quite evident, but it is even better understood when put in his own words: “It’s flesh without muscle and it has developed a different kind of texture through bearing such a weight-bearing thing“. [https://www.widewalls.ch/contemporary-portrait-paintings/benefits-supervisor-sleeping/]
Uploaded on May 26, 2014 by Mohamed Ismail Abdalla

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