LUCIAN FREUD EXHIBITION WITH NEW IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE OPENS AT TITANIC BELFAST

A free exhibition celebrating the work of Lucian Freud has opened at Titanic Belfast, in collaboration with the V&A, giving visitors the chance to view over 60 of the renowned artist’s famous etchings as well as a new immersive experience created by the world-famous attraction. 

Lucian Freud’s Etchings: A Creative Collaboration exhibition runs from tomorrow (Friday 2nd May) until Tuesday 30th September in the Andrews Gallery on Level 2 of Titanic Belfast and charts Freud’s development as an etcher, from his early, tentative explorations to his later mastery of flesh and form through line. 

Artwork featured in the exhibition will include Bella in Her Pluto T-Shirt (1995); Woman Sleeping (1995); Self-portrait: Reflection (1996); Pluto Aged 12 (2000) and Donegal Man (2007) – which has a special connection to Titanic Belfast as the sitter was Pat Doherty, the visitor attraction’s Chairman.

For the first time, visitors will also be able to enjoy a new, immersive experience that brings the etching process to life, allowing them to engage with the meticulous and unpredictable nature of Freud’s printmaking. 

Interactive listening pods offer further insight into the artist’s world through interviews with key figures who knew him well: David Dawson, Freud’s long-standing assistant and frequent model; Andrew Parker-Bowles, who sat for The Brigadier; Gill Saunders, curator of the collection; and Sally Clarke, owner of Clarke’s restaurant, where Freud dined daily. Together, these voices offer a deeper understanding of the man behind the work - his habits, his relationships, and the uncompromising vision that shaped his extraordinary artistic legacy.

The exhibition will also include a recreation of his Kensington studio, offering an intimate glimpse into the space he worked that became a living artwork itself with his iconic bundles of rags, collected to clean his brushes – a testament to his obsessive devotion to his craft.

Judith Owens MBE, Chief Executive of Titanic Belfast said: “We are delighted to open Lucian Freud’s Etchings: A Creative Collaboration exhibition. This stunning exhibition, and immersive experience, gives people the unique opportunity to view unseen work from one of the foremost British artists of the 20th-century, and to become fully immersed in finding out more about this fascinating man and the stories behind his creative process and collaborations.

At Titanic Belfast, we are committed to bringing world-class events to Belfast, to not only expand the offering available to our visitors, but to also continue to enhance Belfast as a place to live, work and visit, so we are immensely proud to be the first location for this beautiful exhibition as part of a global tour, and the only port of call on the island of Ireland that the artwork is being displayed.” 

Gill Saunders, Curator for the V&A’s Lucian Freud’s etching exhibition said “Freud’s etchings invite us to linger over every line. Etching magnifies each decision an artist makes - the bite of the acid, the depth of each scored mark and the patience between successive plates. Freud mastered this in his collaborations on show in this exhibition. Displaying these etchings at Titanic Belfast, a site synonymous with precision engineering and bold vision, feels fitting: both celebrate painstaking craft in the service of something unforgettable.” 

For further information on Lucian Freud’s Etchings: A Creative Collaboration exhibition, click here.