In 1939, the parents of eight-year-old Frank Auerbach sent him out of Nazi Germany and into England; they themselves were not able to escape Germany and died at Auschwitz. The experience would define the boy. After the war, when artists were aimed at color fields and Pop, Auerbach was in London documenting the ravages of W.W. II in fiery brushstrokes. Dark corners and sunken faces populated his canvases. He then focused on the regenerating metropolis, painting the urban bustle of St Pancras, Oxford Street, and Euston. “When one is young,” he has said, “one is excited by drama and when one’s old, truth is exciting.” This exhibition opens with the artist’s 1950s earth-toned impastos of building sites; it ends with his exuberant London paintings from the present day. —Elena Clavarino