Exhibition dates: February 3rd – April 19th 2009
Looks like an amazing exhibition of Francis Bacon’s work, one of my favourite artists – I wish I could see it!
There is a very interesting 14 minute description of the exhibition by curator Manuela Mena on the Prado website. It features a section on Bacon’s use of photographs and reference to work from all his major periods.
I can’t embed the video so click on the image below or link below to take you to the page.
Layout of the exhibition with comments by Manuela Mena (video)
The exhibition is constructed in different sections
- Animal
- Zone
- Apprehension
- Crucifixion
- Crisis
- Archive
- Portrait
- Memorial
- Epic
- Late
“Bacon’s work demonstrates marked similarities to that of many of the Spanish artists he admired. (Manuela Mena, co-curator of the exhibition at the Prado, has written an excellent essay on this topic that can be found in the exhibition’s catalog.) The retrospective at the Prado provides a rare opportunity to compare Bacon to some of the Spanish masters that influenced him.
Start by meandering through the vast Bacon exhibition. Spread between two floors of the new wing of the Prado, the exhibition has brought together Bacon’s most important works from nearly his entire artistic production. It begins with the work that put Bacon on the map, “Three Studies for Figures at the Foot of a Crucifixion” (1944), and follows his work through the interpretations of Velázquez, crucifixion triptychs, his unique portraits and the late works through the years shortly before his death.”
Francis Bacon
‘Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X’
1953
Francis Bacon
‘Chimpanzee’
1955
Francis Bacon
‘Paralytic Child Walking on All Fours (from Muybridge)’
1961
Francis Bacon
‘Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne Standing in a Street in Soho’
1967
Francis Bacon
‘Portrait of John Edwards’
1988
