Bella Freud, great-granddaughter of the father of psychoanalysis: "Feelings were not discussed in my family"

In the London house of Bella Freud (London, 61 years old) there is nothing chosen at random.

The fashion designer transformed this former artists' studio in Kensal Town, a bohemian neighborhood that borders the most luxurious and bourgeois Notting Hill, into her home and studio, but also into a kind of temple to honor the memory of her family and his father, Lucian Freud, who in his last years became one of the most valued painters in the world.

An

it permeates all the rooms: sumptuous rugs, velvet sofas, bronze lamps and decorative pieces with Brancusian overtones.

The decoration is a nod to the thirties of the last century, the decade in which the Freuds, of Austrian and Jewish origin, settled in the British capital fleeing from the Nazis.

Bella's father and her grandfather, the architect Ernst Freud, came to England in 1933. A few years later, her great-grandfather, the neurologist Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, did.

In a corner of her kitchen, Bella Freud has several photos of her father, the painter Lucian Freud, and famous friends of the artist, such as Francis Bacon, on display.

Manuel Vazquez

In every corner of the house there is a makeshift altar that pays homage to the figure of the

.

One kitchen wall is papered with photos of Lucian Freud;

the library shelves are crammed with biographies of the artist and catalogs of his work, and in a corner of the living room there is a cardboard box with his brushes and oils.

“They smell like her paintings,” says the designer as she slides the bristles of one of the brushes across her nose.

But the most prized heirloom in this collection is a beat-up, faded leather sofa.

“It's the one my father used to sit in to watch the horse races on TV.

He lost millions of pounds gambling.

If he had not had this hobby, we would be rich today, ”she laments.

Bella Freud poses in the library of her house.

She is wearing a sweater of her brand.

Manuel Vazquez

Bella Freud may not be rich, but she doesn't seem to be in financial straits either.

Her house is located in one of the fashionable neighborhoods of the British capital, an area of ​​old factories converted into luxury apartments and offices.

She decorated it with the help of Maria Speake, co-founder of the famous London interior design studio Retrouvius.

The designer shares her home with her 22-year-old son, Jimmy, whom she had with her ex-husband, American journalist and writer James Fox, author of

the best-selling memoir of rock star Keith Richards.

But everywhere there are personal belongings of her: vinyl records by Jane Birkin and Kate Bush, books by Noam Chomsky and photos of her famous friends, such as the musician Nick Cave, the supermodel Kate Moss or the model and designer Anita Pallenberg.

"You can photograph everything because the truly valuable is not here," she says with the British phlegm of hers.

The works that she inherited from her father are kept by the National Gallery in London, which at the end of last year organized an exhibition dedicated to the artist on the occasion of the centenary of her birth.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid will open this exhibition, entitled

, on the 14th. “I saw how my father painted many of the paintings in the exhibition.

They are part of my childhood, my training and my evolution.

Seeing them again is like rediscovering my childhood, ”he says.

The designer Bella Freud poses for 'El País Semanal' in the hall of her house, in the London neighborhood of Kensal Town.

The creator is dressed in clothes from her own brand, which she founded in 1990. Manuel Vázquez

The empty alcoves in the house where his father's works hung are now occupied by reproductions of paintings by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud's friend and rival for decades.

One of those reproductions corresponds to

, a work that Bacon painted in 1969, the year in which, according to experts, he began to distance himself from Bella's father.

“I met Francis when I was a teenager.

He was a fun and exciting man.

He was seductive and made very witty and ironic comments.

So I was shy and I was terrified of the idea of ​​asking him questions”, recalls the designer.

The relationship between the two artists finally broke up in the early 1970s. The cause was not revealed, but Bacon hinted that she had never seen money she had lent Freud for his bets again.

Freud, for his part, suggested that Bacon was envious of her success.

Bella has her own theory about it: “I don't know exactly why they fought.

They both had great personalities, but that was never a problem.

Cardboard box where the designer keeps the brushes her father used. Manuel Vázquez

Lucian Freud, who passed away in 2011, had a complex personality inside and outside the workshop.

He sometimes he could be as stark as the pictures of him.

Art critic John Russell called him "a disturbing, haunting, stubborn, obstinate, workaholic presence."

Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Sebastian Smee portrayed him as extremely attractive, but "wild, fickle, fiery and unpredictable."

Bella is one of the 14 recognized children that the painter had with his different wives.

She and her sister Esther are the result of the relationship the artist had with the writer and gardener Bernardine Coverley.

A few years after Bella was born, her parents parted on good terms.

Then an erratic and chaotic stage began for her.

“We stayed with my mother and we began to travel a lot.

We moved all the time.

We didn't have a house we could call home.

We never knew what was going to happen next,” she recalls.

In 1967, at the age of six, he moved to Marrakech, where he learned Arabic and French by playing with the children of the souk.

“It was a fun time, but also strange and difficult,” she admits.

In the early 1970s, Bernardine Coverley and her daughters returned to the UK, settling in the county of Sussex in the south of England.

“We came to live in 11 houses in less than a year, almost in a different house every month.

My sister and I did not have conventional stability.

Now, having my own house, a home, seems to me the ultimate luxury”.

At that time she saw her father sporadically.

Her mother arranged visits for her to spend time with the artist in her London studio.

“I didn't see him every month, but we were always in contact.

When we went to her workshop, she would take us to lunch, ”she says while taking a photo of a portrait of her as a baby that the painter made in 1961.

Another corner of the library.Manuel Vázquez

His adolescence was not easy either.

She acknowledges that she was rebellious and rebellious.

“At that time it was not well seen to wear black, because it was considered the color of mourning.

Well, I wore black everywhere.

I would break even the stupidest rules,” she explains.

“Before it was very frowned upon to be different.

Today society is obsessed with everyone being different”.

At the age of 16, she left her mother's home and settled alone in London, where she began to see her father more often.

To earn some money, she became a shop assistant at Seditionaries, the store owned by punk designer Vivienne Westwood at 430 King's Road, where Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of The Pretenders, and Sid Vicious, bassist for The Pretenders, had worked before her. Sex Pistols.

She says that everything she knows about fashion she learned from Westwood, who passed away in December.

“He had a huge influence on me.

In recent years, I didn't see her as much anymore because she was always so busy changing the world.

Freud poses in the living room of his house.

The cushions are from his brand.

Manuel Vazquez

Bella doesn't remember when she started to be curious about fashion.

As a child she already noticed the clothes that people wore and, especially, her father.

“He dressed very well.

When he was working, he wore some ragged clothes.

And when he went out, he wore these fantastic flannel suits.

He was so classy and so unconventional,” she says.

When she announced to her father that she wanted to dedicate herself to design, the painter was happy with her.

“Something characteristic of my family members is that we are very creative and disruptive.

We like to break with the above.

My father, for example, was not interested in what his ancestors had done and created his own identity.

He taught me that he didn't have to be complacent about what my ancestors had done.

He used to tell me: 'The only thing that matters is what you do and achieve'.

His Father's chair, where he watched horse races.

Manuel Vazquez

So, at the age of 22, Bella moved to Rome to study fashion at the Accademia Costume e Moda.

During her stay in Italy, she again met Vivienne Westwood, who was also living there at the time.

“We saw each other a lot.

When she was visiting Rome, she would stay with me, and when I came back to England, I went to work with her”.

She was the designer's assistant for three years and in 1990 she started her own label.

Lucian Freud designed the firm's logo inspired by

, her dog.

Fascinated by the posters of marches and protests, Bella has made the slogans a hallmark of her collections.

generation

), “Head high and fuck them all” (Head up and give them all) or “Dad is a dick” (Dad is an asshole) are some of his most famous slogans.

They are embroidered on jumpers, sweatshirts and T-shirts, but also printed on mugs, scented candles, ashtrays, plates, blankets and cushions.

“People talk about the power of love, but the power of language is much greater.

There are wars that are fought with words.

It is not the same for Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu to speak than for Donald Trump to do so.

There are inclusive languages ​​and exclusive languages.

There are words that unite and words that divide, ”he explains.

“In my case, I like to formulate phrases that generate a reaction in people.

My slogans do not say what you have to do, they are not instructions.

They are starting points and messages that open the head or the heart.

They can be funny or the summary of a significant moment”.

Space in the kitchen, where the designer treasures photos and writings of her father and portraits of characters who inspire her, such as the writer Joan Didion.Manuel Vázquez

Clues about her life and past can also be found in Bella Freud's designs.

Some of her sweatshirts and jumpers are embroidered with “1970 ″, the year she returned to London after living in Morocco and a reference to her idol Patti Smith and the New York punk scene of that decade.

One of the signature perfumes is called Psychoanalysis (psychoanalysis), a tribute to her great-grandfather, Sigmund Freud.

“I have psychoanalyzed myself and it is great.

I'm lovin 'it.

I know that it is an old way of analyzing yourself, but I liked it and it worked for me, ”she admits.

“For a long time, the English were horrified if you expressed your feelings.

In my family, for example, feelings were not discussed.

Because of that, people were behaving like crazy and doing crazy things looking for a little attention.

In England,

The worst that can happen to you is that someone says that you want to attract attention, ”he explains with a laugh, but admits that things have changed since the pandemic.

"Now it is seen with better eyes that you express what you feel or that you say that you are going to therapy."

In the hall of her house, Bella Freud has exhibition posters of her father, portraits of her famous friends, including one of the Australian musician Nick Cave (in the center of the image). Manuel Vázquez

Judaism is also very present in his life, although he says he grew up in a secular environment.

The Freuds were never religious, but they are proud of their Jewish culture.

“It is very difficult not to feel connected to Judaism.

I like the feeling of being part of something greater than myself, even though I have never been to a synagogue, ”she admits.

In the kitchen of her house hangs a

, the benefit concert that his friend Nick Cave gave with Primal Scream and Spiritualized in 2004 to raise funds for Palestinian children.

The designer has visited Palestine many times and defines the situation she has seen there as "terrible and devastating."

“If you're going to be stepping on someone and leaving them on the ground, that forces you to be on the ground as well.

You are never going to be in a good situation if you are subjugating another person or another race or another society.

Everybody knows that,” she muses.

“I feel Jewish, but I am in favor of Palestine.

And I think that's how a real Jew should feel.

What Israel is doing to the Palestinians has nothing to do with Judaism.

It is a betrayal of Judaism and its values, ”she says.

Records from your collection.

Manuel Vazquez

It is the only moment of the interview in which the creator makes a brief pause.

She looks doubtful.

“I shouldn't talk about politics.

I am a nightmare for my press agent, ”she says with a laugh.

But when she is asked about Brexit, she doesn't shut up.

She complains that the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union has hit her business.

She points out that it now costs her more to export or import and that the price of the supplies she needs to produce her brand of clothing are through the roof.

“It was obvious that this was going to happen, that we were going to be more isolated, that we were going to have to do more paperwork to do even the simplest things,” she says.

“Brexit has destroyed the UK.

We have gone back decades.

And political leaders, both Labor and Conservatives,

Freud often discusses these issues with his son.

“Jimmy and his friends are 22 years old, but they are very curious and interested in politics and current events.

They are not as dominated by social networks as we think, ”he concludes.

“I see 22-year-old boys as much more responsible than when I was that age.

My generation was more lost and crazier.

The parents of before did not have the time or desire to explain to their children what life is about.

You had to learn that by yourself."

A corner of the living room, where he has his vinyl records.

Manuel Vazquez

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