This exhibition catalogue is intricate yet simple and gripping; with its main focus being the highly influential paintings of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, it also showcases artists active at the same time. It brings alive the quality and force of individual works, while highlighting the profound dialogue between the artists and the links between some of the compositions from the second half of the 20th century. Despite their obvious differences, the artists presented – Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, R. B. Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Paula Rego, F. N. Souza and Euan Uglow – remained faithful to the intimate and powerful depiction of the human figure and their own everyday landscape.