Press release

January 2010
Page 1 of 6

Exhibition

Francis Bacon: In Camera

27 March 20 June 2010
I can dream all day long and ideas for paintings just fall into my mind like slides
Francis Bacon Five Francis Bacon paintings never seen before in the UK will lead a groundbreaking exhibition that explores the artists work from the perspective of his working processes. Co-curators Martin Harrison and Antonia Harrison will hang significant Bacon oil paintings (from 1950 to1989) alongside the artefacts and images that inspired them, including archival material from his studio (now in Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane), photography and film stills. The conclusions they draw might not best please the artist himself, who always asserted that his work appeared as if by magic. No one ever saw Bacon work, says Martin Harrison, but our research reveals a very different man from the public persona we need to unlearn what we think we know about him. From the exhibition it quickly becomes apparent that any thesis that Bacon was only a spontaneously creative artist whose work emerged effortlessly straight into paint is unsafe. Bacon always asserted this idea, some believe because he feared that if it were understood the magic would vanish. His yearning to bypass drawing straight into visceral paint is reflected in his devotion to artists ranging from Velzquez to Chaim Soutine. Bacon spoke of getting a painting onto the nervous system, of creating the grin without the cat. Close examination of visual imagery from his studio shows what is probably a unique modus operandi the artist followed a complex and idiosyncratic form of preparation almost an art form in itself based largely on film and photography. Visitors to the exhibition will see photographs often twisted and torn, and papers ripped and folded, in a process that in many ways becomes a method of preparatory drawing. The exhibition therefore aims to rebut an idea gaining academic ground at the moment that Francis Bacon couldnt draw. In direct contradiction Martin Harrison cites a 1933 Bacon gouache, inspired by Picasso, under whose painterly surface can be seen careful drawing, done in part with a ruler: The person who did the drawing under this paint, comments Harrison, was quite capable of becoming a competent draughtsman, had he wished, but he saw this as inimical to the immediacy of paint as sensation he sought to achieve. Bacon certainly colluded in the myth of his own spontaneity, saying of himself that he never knew what to paint. Yet sheets from a notebook found at his studio in Reece Mews, South Kensington, show careful planning akin to laundry lists of exactly what he planned to paint on a particular day.

Press release
January 2010
Page 2 of 6

For all Francis Bacons brilliant legacy of portraits, he only ever painted four sitters from life and the experience of those sitters reinforces the hidden side of the artists approach. When Lucian Freud arrived at Bacons studio to sit for a portrait he was surprised to discover the painting virtually finished (and based on a photograph of Franz Kafka). David Sylvester found his likeness to have been assimilated from a photograph of a rhinoceros, while the portraits of Lady Sainsbury were inspired by photographs of Egyptian art. The fourth sitter was Cecil Beaton, who hated his portrait so much that Bacon destroyed it. Interestingly, Bacons use and commissioning of photography went against Britains then somewhat grudging and delayed acceptance of photography as an art form in its own right. Bacon would also draw upon ideas and images from artists he revered from the past, including Michelangelo, Velzquez and, perhaps most significantly for him, Picasso. In 1949, Bacons fusion of a Velzquez portrait with stills from the Odessa Steps sequence in Eisensteins iconic film Battleship Potemkin was crucial to his developing agenda to make figurative art modern. The exhibition will also explore the influence of films by directors such as Buuel and Resnais, together with photographs by Muybridge and John Deakin, which informed Bacons reconfigurations of the human body. For the very first time, items from the vast array of images that Bacon absorbed will be shown in close proximity to the paintings they inspired. Theres a real risk that the myth of Bacon albeit one in which the artist colluded is all we will hand on to future generations. Yet the paintings are still by far the most important thing it is only by reaching into those that we will ask the right questions and do justice to Bacons real genius. (Martin Harrison)

Notes to editors:
Opening times and prices Compton Verney is open from 27 March 2010 until 12 December 2010. Tuesday Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays 11am 5pm. Admission to Compton Verney is 8 Adults, 6 Concessions, 2 Children, 18 Family. Under 5s are free. Admission includes entry to the gallery and grounds. The gallery is home to six permanent collections and a changing exhibition programme. Membership Membership to Compton Verney allows unlimited admission for 12 months and costs 24 for individuals, 44 joint and 50 for family membership (two adults and up to four children).

For press information contact Amanda Randle Compton Verney T: 01789 490 552 E: amanda.randle@comptonverney.org.uk

Image information
Exhibition

Francis Bacon: In Camera

27 March 20 June 2010
For high resolution copies of any of the following images, please email;
amanda.randle@comptonverney.org.uk
All credit lines are correct in accordance to agreements with lending institutions and copyright holders and must be used in full. All images are supplied at 300 dpi, approx 3-4 MB and approx 10/11cm in height or width. Please contact us if you require a larger image. In agreement with copyright holders all images may not be cropped or text laid over them without prior permission.

Compton Verney Warwickshire CV35 9HZ E amanda.randle@comptonverney.org.uk T 01789 490 552 www.comptonverney.org.uk
Registered Charity No 1032478

Francis Bacon Study for a Portrait of John Edwards 1989 Oil on canvas, 216 x 167cm Private Collection 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved / DACS, London.

Francis Bacon Untitled (figure with raised arm) 1949 Collection: Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved / DACS, London.

Francis Bacon Untitled (sea) 1954 Oil on Canvas 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon, courtesy of Faggionato Fine Arts, London and Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York

John Deakin Black & white photograph of Francis Bacon c.1967 Collection: Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved / DACS, London

Studio Item The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge Collection: Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved/DACS, London

Francis Bacon's studio at 7 Reece Mews, London Photograph by Perry Ogden Collection: Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane. 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved / DACS, London.

John Deakin Photograph of George Dyer Collection: Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane. 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved / DACS, London

Francis Bacon Portrait of John Edwards 1988 Oil on canvas 2010 The Estate of Francis Bacon, courtesy of Faggionato Fine Arts, London and Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York