The Jewish artist Frank Auerbach was born in Berlin in 1931, two years before Hitler became the chancellor of Germany. In 1939, young Auerbach was sent to England to escape the Nazis; his parents didn’t make it out and died at Auschwitz. In the late 50s, while artists were moving toward Pop art, Auerbach was in London documenting the ravages of W.W. II in fiery brushstrokes. Dark corners and sunken faces populated his canvases. He was also creating self-portraits characterized by thick impasto and a focus on lines, folds, ridges, and bumps. “When one is young,” he has said, “one is excited by drama and when one’s old, truth is exciting.” Now Auerbach is 93, and he’s again putting himself up for scrutiny. In his first major show in Venice since the 1986 Biennale, he is presenting 11 paintings from the breadth of his career. Palazzo da Mosto, a gilded 17th-century palace, is a marvelous setting for these masterpieces. —Elena Clavarino