In the flesh: Francis Bacon’s late paintings on show at New York’s Gagosian Gallery
20 of Francis Bacon’s painting from the last two decade of his life are on show at New York’s Gagosian Gallery. Pictured: Bacon’s harrowingTriptych from 1991, © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2015. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY
When it comes to Francis Bacon, his searing paintings skyrocket into the stratosphere. After all, his 1969 Three Studies of Lucien Freud soared to a staggering $142,404,992 at Christie’s three years ago, and is probably now locked away in a Russian plutocrat’s home.
But there’s an alternative way to take in his artistry and it doesn’t cost a fraction of that amount. The tormented artist’s late paintings are front and centre this season at Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue. Showcased in the exhibition titled ‘Francis Bacon: Late Paintings’ are some 20 paintings that the artist created in London as well as Paris during the last two decades of this life.
Featured in this first in-depth exploration of this particular period of his oeuvre are loans from the Pompidou, the Beyeler, the Tate and even the Museu Coleção Berardo in Lisbon along with a number of private collectors. Further indication of the sheer quality of this show is that no less than seven of Bacon’s triptychs are included.
What’s surprising is seeing Bacon’s disturbing and violent figures up close, which are frequently lanced with what appears to be blood painted occasionally on a somewhat serene background in a palette ranging from yellow to rose. Another distinctive slant to this period is the degree to which the artist turned to spray-painting, and even sometimes a roller, rather than his ingrained bold brush strokes.
In his harrowing 1987 Triptych, the artist whittles down and strips his figures of all recognisable features, and in some cases, truncates the forms while rendering only flesh coloured shadows for a ghostly sense of movement.
As Gagosian director Valentina Castellani says, ‘The human body reveals itself by its absence, as exemplified by the superb Blood on Pavement. Nothing remains of our existence but a stain of blood, a shadow on the ground.’
Titled ‘Francis Bacon: Late Paintings,’ the show surprisingly features Bacon’s disturbing and violent figures up close. Pictured: Sand Dune, 1983, © The Estate of FrancisBacon. All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2015
Included in the exhibition are artworks loaned from the Pompidou, the Beyeler, the Tate and even the Museu Coleção Berardo in Lisbon along with a number of private collectors. Pictured: Study from the Human Body, 1981, © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2015
The works are on show till 12 December. Pictured: Self-Portrait, 1978, © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2015
INFORMATIONWebsite
‘Francis Bacon: Late Paintings’ will be on view till 12 December
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Courtesy: Gagosian Gallery
ADDRESS
Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue
New York, New York
-
All hail the arrival of true autonomy? On Tesla’s proposed Robotaxi and techno-insecurity
Tesla’s new marketing push predicts a future of robot cabs, automated buses and autonomous home androids. We already want to get off
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Discothèque perfumes evoke the scent of Tokyo in the year 2000
As Discothèque gets ready to launch its first perfume collection, Mary Cleary catches up with the brand’s founders
By Mary Cleary Published
-
This unassuming London house is a radical rethinking of the suburban home
Station Lodge by architect Andrei Saltykov in South West London offers a radical subversion to regional residential architecture
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next Door
The Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
By Anne Soward Published
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New York
Violet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
By Mary Cleary Published
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West
‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American West
The artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990s
New York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black men
The late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in Philadelphia
Artist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
By Hannah Silver Published
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connection
Wallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
By Charlotte Gunn Published