Renowned artist Lucian Freud (1922-2011) is commemorated in an exhibition of portraits and figure studies, spanning seven decades his working life, held at the National Portrait Gallery London from February to May 2012. The monograph explores the development of his art from acutely observed studies of the 1940s to major paintings in the later phase, where the artist engaged in a complex and sometimes brutal meditation on the human being, drawn from an intimate engagement with the sitter. Freud's unsparing eye maps his subjects, sustaining single handed an almost unique commitmnt to the ambitions of high art, grounded in classical canons of Western tradition. The study includes a review by Marina Vaizey of Freud's drawings, prints and oil studies, exhibited at Blain|Southern Gallery, Hay Hill.
Marina Vaizey is an art critic, lecturer and traveller; her books include The Artist as Photographer, 100 Masterpieces of Art; Great Women Collectors. She was the art critic for the Financial Times for four years, and The Sunday Times for eighteen. She has curated several exhibitions and written manycatalogues. She has been a Trustee for several national museums.

Marina Vaizey is a lecturer, writer and art critic. She was the art critic of the Financial Times for four years, and The Sunday Times for eighteen years. She has been a council member of the Arts Council, the Crafts Council, several art colleges, national museums, Friends groups and arts centres. Among her books are The Artist as Photographer, 100 Masterpieces of Art, Great Women Collectors, and she has written numerous catalogues, led over fifty trips visiting cultural institutions abroad, and lectured to art societies and in museums and galleries. She is currently writing for theartsdesk.com, the Burlington magazine, Dispatches (Imperial War Museum) and the V & A magazine. For Cv Publications, she has written on Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Lucian Freud.