View allAll Photos Tagged Gagosian
By Richard Serra
On display at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia Street), London
October 2014 to March 2015
artist: john waters. two figures sculpted originally in oil-based clay and then molded in pieces: arms, heads and bodies. visible skin sections cast in urethane over an aluminum and steel internal armature. skin painted with pigmented silicone, eyes hand-painted with acrylics and cast in cold-cast acrylic. combination of human and synthetic hair for hair and eyebrows for both. wardrobe made from treated vintage fabrics and faux fur. large figure holds poplar wood dowel control stick with black cotton marionette strings. ike 48 inches tall, tina 28 inches tall. edition of 5.
exhibition information here.
By Richard Serra
On display at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia Street), London
October 2014 to March 2015
By Richard Serra
On display at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia Street), London
October 2014 to March 2015
Thierry Geoffroy was visiting Frieze week London art fair
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participating gallerie in 2018 for the Frieze art fair were
FRIEZE LONDON
303 Gallery, New York
A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro
Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York
Galería Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid
The Approach, London
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
The Box, Los Angeles
The Breeder, Athens
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
Buchholz, Berlin
Canada, New York
Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
Sadie Coles HQ, London
Pilar Corrias Gallery, London
Galeria Vera Cortês, Lisbon
Corvi-Mora, London
Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Galerie Eigen + Art, Berlin
Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
Fonti, Naples
Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo
Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Frith Street Gallery, London
Gagosian, London
François Ghebaly, Los Angeles
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Marian Goodman Gallery, London
Greene Naftali, New York
greengrassi, London
Grimm, Amsterdam
Galerie Karin Guenther, Hamburg
Hales Gallery, London
Hauser & Wirth, London
Herald St, London
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Hollybush Gardens, London
Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul
Ingleby, Edinburgh
Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
Alison Jacques Gallery, London
Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna
Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf
Casey Kaplan, New York
Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
König Galerie, Berlin
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
Kukje Gallery, Seoul
kurimanzutto, Mexico City
Simon Lee Gallery, London
Lehmann Maupin, New York
Galerie Lelong & Co., New York
David Lewis, New York
Lisson Gallery, London
Kate MacGarry, London
Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Maisterravalbuena, Madrid
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Mary Mary, Glasgow
Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels
Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo
kamel mennour, Paris
Metro Pictures, New York
Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna
Victoria Miro, London
Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London
The Modern Institute, Glasgow
mother’s tankstation, Dublin
Taro Nasu, Tokyo
Galleria Franco Noero, Turin
David Nolan Gallery, New York
Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin
Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome
Office Baroque, Brussels
OMR, Mexico City
P.P.O.W, New York
Pace Gallery, London
Maureen Paley, London
Peres Projects, Berlin
Galerie Perrotin, Paris
Galeria Plan B, Berlin
Gregor Podnar, Berlin
Project 88, Mumbai
Almine Rech Gallery, Paris
Rodeo, London
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London
Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan
Salon 94, New York
Esther Schipper, Berlin
Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich
Seventeen, London
Sfeir-Semler, Beirut
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Shanghart Gallery, Shanghai
Société, Berlin
Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Sprovieri, London
Sprüth Magers, Berlin
Stevenson, Cape Town
Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo
Timothy Taylor, London
The Third Line, Dubai
Travesía Cuatro, Madrid
Vermelho, São Paulo
Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
Michael Werner, New York
White Cube, London
Barbara Wien, Berlin
Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
David Zwirner, New York
Focus Sector
47 Canal, New York
Arcadia Missa, London
Michael Benevento, Los Angeles
blank projects, Cape Town
Bodega, New York
Carlos/Ishikawa, London
Nuno Centeno, Porto
Cooper Cole, Toronto
Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris
Emalin, London
Frutta, Rome
Ginerva Gambino, Cologne
Green Art Gallery, Dubai
Gypsum, Cairo
High Art, Paris
Instituto de Visión, Bogota
Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai
Koppe Astner, Glasgow
Laveronica Arte Contemporanea, Modica
Galerie Emanuel Layr, Vienna
Magician Space, Beijing
Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong
Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo
Misako & Rosen, Tokyo
Night Gallery, Los Angeles
Project Native Informant, London
Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City
Revolver Galería, Lima
Southard Reid, London
Sultana, Paris
The Sunday Painter, London
Union Pacific, London
Various Small Fires (VSF), Los Angeles
FRIEZE MASTERS
Didier Aaron, Paris
Acquavella Galleries, New York
Applicat-Prazan, Paris
Ariadne Galleries, London
Antichita Bacarelli, Florence
Emanuel von Baeyer, London
Bernheimer Fine Art, Lucerne
Blain | Southern, London
BorzoGallery, Amsterdam
Botticelli Antichita, Florence
Ben Brown Fine Arts, London
Prahlad Bubbar, London
Galerie Canesso, Paris
Cardi, London
Castelli Gallery, New York
Galerie Jean-Christophe Charbonnier, Paris
Galerie Chenel, Paris
Le Claire Kunst, Hamburg
Colnaghi, London
Galleria Continua, San Gimignano
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
Gisèle Croës – Arts d’Extrême Orient,
Brussels
Daniel Crouch Rare Books, London
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Massimo De Carlo, Milan
Dickinson, London
Andrew Edmunds, London
Donald Ellis Gallery, New York
Entwistle, London
The Gallery of Everything, London
Eykyn Maclean, London
Galerie Ulrich Fiedler, Berlin
Sam Fogg, London
Peter Freeman, Inc., New York
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Gagosian, London
Francesca Galloway, London
Galerie David Ghezelbash, Paris
Israel Goldman Japanese Prints, London
(shared with Max Rutherston)
Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid
Richard Green, London
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books, Basel
Johnny Van Haeften, London
Hauser & Wirth, London
Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, London
Paul Hughes Fine Arts, London
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul
Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
De Jonckheere, Geneva
Annely Juda Fine Art, London
Tina Kim Gallery, New York
Koetser Gallery, Zurich
Kunstkammer Georg Laue, Munich
Les Enluminures, Paris
Lévy Gorvy, London
Salomon Lilian, Geneva
Luhring Augustine, New York
Luxembourg & Dayan, London
Olivier Malingue, London
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
The Mayor Gallery, London
Mazzoleni, London
Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco
kamel mennour, Paris
Galerie Meyer Oceanic Art, Paris
Mnuchin Gallery, New York
Moretti Fine Art, London
Nahmad Contemporary, New York
Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, London
Pace Gallery, London
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles
Raccanello Leprince, London
Almine Rech Gallery, Paris
Robilant + Voena, London
Rudigier, Munich
Max Rutherston, London
Galerie G. Sarti, Paris
Schönewald Fine Arts, Düsseldorf
Karsten Schubert, London
Shapero Rare Books, London
Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York
Skarstedt, London
Sperone Westwater, New York
Sprüth Magers, Berlin
Stair Sainty Gallery, London
Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York
Sycomore Ancient Art, Geneva
Galleria Tega, Milan
Galerie Thomas, Munich
Tornabuoni Art, London
Van de Weghe, New York
Van Doren Waxter, New York
Venus Over Manhattan, New York
Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp
Rupert Wace Ancient Art, London
Waddington Custot, London
Offer Waterman, London
W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher, Vienna
David Zwirner, London
Collections Sector
AR-PAB, Alvaro Roquette & Pedro AguiarBranco,
Lisbon
Brun Fine Art, London
Eric Gillis Fine Art, Brussels
Peter Harrington, London
Oscar Humphries, London
Yves Macaux, Brussels
Mitochu Koeki, Tokyo
Spotlight Sector
Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, Pierre Molinier
Galeria de Arte Almeida e Dale, São Paulo, Alfredo Volpi
Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, Gathie Falk
espaivisor, Valencia, Hamish Fulton
Henrique Faria, New York, Mirtha Dermisache
Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, Joe Overstreet
Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Paris, Pierre Molinier
Galerist, Istanbul, Semiha Berksoy
Alexander Gray Associates, New York, Sergei Eisenstein
Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, Rosalyn Drexler
Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, Ishiuchi Miyako
Inman Gallery, Houston, Dorothy Antoinette LaSelle
Alison Jacques Gallery, London, Lenore G. Tawney
Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, Nausica Pastra
Loevenbruck, Paris, Key Hiraga
Gió Marconi, Milan, Valerio Adami
Massimo Minini, Brescia, Titina Maselli
Jan Mot, Brussels, stanley brouwn
Perve Galeria, Lisbon, Ernesto Shikhani
Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Ivan Kožaric
Galeria Marilia Razuk, São Paulo, Alfredo Volpi
Richard Saltoun, London, Annegret Soltau
SODA gallery, Bratislava, Stano Filko
Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp, stanley brouwn
Vigo, London, Semiha Berksoy
Amanda Wilkinson, London, Derek Jarman
I am not a fun of Francis Bacon and at Gagosian, first time ever, I was clicked by some of his works.
gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/francis-bacon-couplings/
The moment a number of figures become involved, you immediately come on to the storytelling aspect of the relationships between figures. And that immediately sets up a kind of narrative. I always hope to be able to make a great number of figures without a narrative.
—Francis Bacon
Gagosian is pleased to present Couplings, an exhibition of Francis Bacon’s double-figure paintings.
Bacon’s disturbing images—his portrayals of friends and fellow artists, and the deformations and stylistic distortions of classical subjects—radically altered the genre of figurative painting in the twentieth century. In Bacon’s paintings, the human presence is evoked sometimes viscerally, at other times more fleetingly, in the form of a shadow or a blurred, watchful figure. In certain instances, the portrayal takes the form of a composite in which male and female bodily traits are transposed or fused. This selective exhibition explores a theme that preoccupied Bacon throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
At the heart of the exhibition are two of the most uninhibited images that Bacon ever painted: Two Figures (1953) and Two Figures in the Grass (1954). These interrelated works have not been seen publicly together since the major retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971. After completing Two Figures in the Grass, Bacon did not return to the subject until 1967, the year that homosexual acts in private were decriminalized in England and Wales. That same year he painted Two Figures on a Couch (1967), which was last exhibited in London in 1968 and is also included in Couplings.
Finding that the physical presence of his subjects could prove inhibiting, Bacon painted his figures and portraits both from memory and from photographs—his own, as well as Eadweard Muybridge’s dynamic studies of people in motion, including male wrestlers. Although Bacon was sometimes reluctant to specifically identify the subjects of his paintings, a number of the works in Couplings (a term the artist himself used) were inspired by his fraught, often violent and passionate relationships. His affair with Peter Lacy, a former fighter pilot whom he met in 1952, cooled off after Lacy moved to Tangier, Morocco, in 1956, where Bacon visited him every summer until 1961. But even after Lacy died in 1962, Bacon continued to paint portraits of him, recalling intensely intimate moments in their relationship. In 1963 Bacon met George Dyer, a petty criminal from London’s East End. Dyer succeeded Lacy as Bacon’s lover and model and was the inspiration for many of Bacon’s grandest and most emotive paintings of the male nude. Three works in Couplings suggest a startlingly erotic and sometimes violent relationship between two men, such as the one Bacon and Dyer had: Two Figures on a Couch, the triptych Three Studies of Figures on Beds (1972), and Two Figures with a Monkey (1973)—the last two painted after Dyer’s suicide in 1971.
This is Gagosian’s third exhibition dedicated to Bacon’s work, following Francis Bacon: Late Paintings (2015) and Francis Bacon: Triptychs (2006).
The gallery is deeply grateful to the private lenders to this exhibition, as well as to Leeds Art Gallery, England, and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a previously unpublished interview with Bacon by Richard Francis; an essay by Martin Harrison, author of the acclaimed Bacon catalogue raisonné; and an introduction by Richard Calvocoressi, senior curator at Gagosian. The catalogue will be released in October 2019, to coincide with Frieze London.
Jenny Saville, Rosetta II [Self Portrait], 2005-06, Oil on paper mounted on panel, 252 x 187.5 [252] cm - 99 3/16 x 73 3/16 [99 3/16] in, Private collection, Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
Altro titolo - Another title: Kατα(ρ)ράκτης, tribute to Italo Svevo: Senilità (As a Man Grows Older), 2025
[Fototeca Fondazione Omeri, Trieste]
By Richard Serra
On display at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia Street), London
October 2014 to March 2015
Gagosian Gallery, London.
These three were my favourites. There were nine altogether. Normally these would live outdoors in the Henry Moore Sculpture Gardens at Perry Green, Hertfordshire.
By Richard Serra
On display at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia Street), London
October 2014 to March 2015
By Richard Serra
On display at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia Street), London
October 2014 to March 2015
Richard Serra
Junction / Cycle
Gagosian Gallery
555 West 24th St, NYC
September 14th - November 28th, 2011
I am not a fun of Francis Bacon and at Gagosian, first time ever, I was clicked by some of his works.
gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/francis-bacon-couplings/
The moment a number of figures become involved, you immediately come on to the storytelling aspect of the relationships between figures. And that immediately sets up a kind of narrative. I always hope to be able to make a great number of figures without a narrative.
—Francis Bacon
Gagosian is pleased to present Couplings, an exhibition of Francis Bacon’s double-figure paintings.
Bacon’s disturbing images—his portrayals of friends and fellow artists, and the deformations and stylistic distortions of classical subjects—radically altered the genre of figurative painting in the twentieth century. In Bacon’s paintings, the human presence is evoked sometimes viscerally, at other times more fleetingly, in the form of a shadow or a blurred, watchful figure. In certain instances, the portrayal takes the form of a composite in which male and female bodily traits are transposed or fused. This selective exhibition explores a theme that preoccupied Bacon throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
At the heart of the exhibition are two of the most uninhibited images that Bacon ever painted: Two Figures (1953) and Two Figures in the Grass (1954). These interrelated works have not been seen publicly together since the major retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971. After completing Two Figures in the Grass, Bacon did not return to the subject until 1967, the year that homosexual acts in private were decriminalized in England and Wales. That same year he painted Two Figures on a Couch (1967), which was last exhibited in London in 1968 and is also included in Couplings.
Finding that the physical presence of his subjects could prove inhibiting, Bacon painted his figures and portraits both from memory and from photographs—his own, as well as Eadweard Muybridge’s dynamic studies of people in motion, including male wrestlers. Although Bacon was sometimes reluctant to specifically identify the subjects of his paintings, a number of the works in Couplings (a term the artist himself used) were inspired by his fraught, often violent and passionate relationships. His affair with Peter Lacy, a former fighter pilot whom he met in 1952, cooled off after Lacy moved to Tangier, Morocco, in 1956, where Bacon visited him every summer until 1961. But even after Lacy died in 1962, Bacon continued to paint portraits of him, recalling intensely intimate moments in their relationship. In 1963 Bacon met George Dyer, a petty criminal from London’s East End. Dyer succeeded Lacy as Bacon’s lover and model and was the inspiration for many of Bacon’s grandest and most emotive paintings of the male nude. Three works in Couplings suggest a startlingly erotic and sometimes violent relationship between two men, such as the one Bacon and Dyer had: Two Figures on a Couch, the triptych Three Studies of Figures on Beds (1972), and Two Figures with a Monkey (1973)—the last two painted after Dyer’s suicide in 1971.
This is Gagosian’s third exhibition dedicated to Bacon’s work, following Francis Bacon: Late Paintings (2015) and Francis Bacon: Triptychs (2006).
The gallery is deeply grateful to the private lenders to this exhibition, as well as to Leeds Art Gallery, England, and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a previously unpublished interview with Bacon by Richard Francis; an essay by Martin Harrison, author of the acclaimed Bacon catalogue raisonné; and an introduction by Richard Calvocoressi, senior curator at Gagosian. The catalogue will be released in October 2019, to coincide with Frieze London.
Simple shot of a guy looking at photos of guys at the MoMA , NYC. The photo he is viewing is Americans by Richard Avedon. The Mission Council: April 28, 1971, 1975 For a closer look at Avedon's photo look here: www.artnews.org/gagosianla/?exi=34548&Gagosian&Ri...
I am not a fun of Francis Bacon and at Gagosian, first time ever, I was clicked by some of his works.
gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/francis-bacon-couplings/
The moment a number of figures become involved, you immediately come on to the storytelling aspect of the relationships between figures. And that immediately sets up a kind of narrative. I always hope to be able to make a great number of figures without a narrative.
—Francis Bacon
Gagosian is pleased to present Couplings, an exhibition of Francis Bacon’s double-figure paintings.
Bacon’s disturbing images—his portrayals of friends and fellow artists, and the deformations and stylistic distortions of classical subjects—radically altered the genre of figurative painting in the twentieth century. In Bacon’s paintings, the human presence is evoked sometimes viscerally, at other times more fleetingly, in the form of a shadow or a blurred, watchful figure. In certain instances, the portrayal takes the form of a composite in which male and female bodily traits are transposed or fused. This selective exhibition explores a theme that preoccupied Bacon throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
At the heart of the exhibition are two of the most uninhibited images that Bacon ever painted: Two Figures (1953) and Two Figures in the Grass (1954). These interrelated works have not been seen publicly together since the major retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971. After completing Two Figures in the Grass, Bacon did not return to the subject until 1967, the year that homosexual acts in private were decriminalized in England and Wales. That same year he painted Two Figures on a Couch (1967), which was last exhibited in London in 1968 and is also included in Couplings.
Finding that the physical presence of his subjects could prove inhibiting, Bacon painted his figures and portraits both from memory and from photographs—his own, as well as Eadweard Muybridge’s dynamic studies of people in motion, including male wrestlers. Although Bacon was sometimes reluctant to specifically identify the subjects of his paintings, a number of the works in Couplings (a term the artist himself used) were inspired by his fraught, often violent and passionate relationships. His affair with Peter Lacy, a former fighter pilot whom he met in 1952, cooled off after Lacy moved to Tangier, Morocco, in 1956, where Bacon visited him every summer until 1961. But even after Lacy died in 1962, Bacon continued to paint portraits of him, recalling intensely intimate moments in their relationship. In 1963 Bacon met George Dyer, a petty criminal from London’s East End. Dyer succeeded Lacy as Bacon’s lover and model and was the inspiration for many of Bacon’s grandest and most emotive paintings of the male nude. Three works in Couplings suggest a startlingly erotic and sometimes violent relationship between two men, such as the one Bacon and Dyer had: Two Figures on a Couch, the triptych Three Studies of Figures on Beds (1972), and Two Figures with a Monkey (1973)—the last two painted after Dyer’s suicide in 1971.
This is Gagosian’s third exhibition dedicated to Bacon’s work, following Francis Bacon: Late Paintings (2015) and Francis Bacon: Triptychs (2006).
The gallery is deeply grateful to the private lenders to this exhibition, as well as to Leeds Art Gallery, England, and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a previously unpublished interview with Bacon by Richard Francis; an essay by Martin Harrison, author of the acclaimed Bacon catalogue raisonné; and an introduction by Richard Calvocoressi, senior curator at Gagosian. The catalogue will be released in October 2019, to coincide with Frieze London.
I am not a fun of Francis Bacon and at Gagosian, first time ever, I was clicked by some of his works.
gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/francis-bacon-couplings/
The moment a number of figures become involved, you immediately come on to the storytelling aspect of the relationships between figures. And that immediately sets up a kind of narrative. I always hope to be able to make a great number of figures without a narrative.
—Francis Bacon
Gagosian is pleased to present Couplings, an exhibition of Francis Bacon’s double-figure paintings.
Bacon’s disturbing images—his portrayals of friends and fellow artists, and the deformations and stylistic distortions of classical subjects—radically altered the genre of figurative painting in the twentieth century. In Bacon’s paintings, the human presence is evoked sometimes viscerally, at other times more fleetingly, in the form of a shadow or a blurred, watchful figure. In certain instances, the portrayal takes the form of a composite in which male and female bodily traits are transposed or fused. This selective exhibition explores a theme that preoccupied Bacon throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
At the heart of the exhibition are two of the most uninhibited images that Bacon ever painted: Two Figures (1953) and Two Figures in the Grass (1954). These interrelated works have not been seen publicly together since the major retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971. After completing Two Figures in the Grass, Bacon did not return to the subject until 1967, the year that homosexual acts in private were decriminalized in England and Wales. That same year he painted Two Figures on a Couch (1967), which was last exhibited in London in 1968 and is also included in Couplings.
Finding that the physical presence of his subjects could prove inhibiting, Bacon painted his figures and portraits both from memory and from photographs—his own, as well as Eadweard Muybridge’s dynamic studies of people in motion, including male wrestlers. Although Bacon was sometimes reluctant to specifically identify the subjects of his paintings, a number of the works in Couplings (a term the artist himself used) were inspired by his fraught, often violent and passionate relationships. His affair with Peter Lacy, a former fighter pilot whom he met in 1952, cooled off after Lacy moved to Tangier, Morocco, in 1956, where Bacon visited him every summer until 1961. But even after Lacy died in 1962, Bacon continued to paint portraits of him, recalling intensely intimate moments in their relationship. In 1963 Bacon met George Dyer, a petty criminal from London’s East End. Dyer succeeded Lacy as Bacon’s lover and model and was the inspiration for many of Bacon’s grandest and most emotive paintings of the male nude. Three works in Couplings suggest a startlingly erotic and sometimes violent relationship between two men, such as the one Bacon and Dyer had: Two Figures on a Couch, the triptych Three Studies of Figures on Beds (1972), and Two Figures with a Monkey (1973)—the last two painted after Dyer’s suicide in 1971.
This is Gagosian’s third exhibition dedicated to Bacon’s work, following Francis Bacon: Late Paintings (2015) and Francis Bacon: Triptychs (2006).
The gallery is deeply grateful to the private lenders to this exhibition, as well as to Leeds Art Gallery, England, and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a previously unpublished interview with Bacon by Richard Francis; an essay by Martin Harrison, author of the acclaimed Bacon catalogue raisonné; and an introduction by Richard Calvocoressi, senior curator at Gagosian. The catalogue will be released in October 2019, to coincide with Frieze London.
"Georgia, Untitled (Allee)" (1996)
Gelatin silver print
40 x 50 in.
Loan from Gagosian Gallery
© Sally Mann. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery
I am not a fun of Francis Bacon and at Gagosian, first time ever, I was clicked by some of his works.
gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/francis-bacon-couplings/
The moment a number of figures become involved, you immediately come on to the storytelling aspect of the relationships between figures. And that immediately sets up a kind of narrative. I always hope to be able to make a great number of figures without a narrative.
—Francis Bacon
Gagosian is pleased to present Couplings, an exhibition of Francis Bacon’s double-figure paintings.
Bacon’s disturbing images—his portrayals of friends and fellow artists, and the deformations and stylistic distortions of classical subjects—radically altered the genre of figurative painting in the twentieth century. In Bacon’s paintings, the human presence is evoked sometimes viscerally, at other times more fleetingly, in the form of a shadow or a blurred, watchful figure. In certain instances, the portrayal takes the form of a composite in which male and female bodily traits are transposed or fused. This selective exhibition explores a theme that preoccupied Bacon throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
At the heart of the exhibition are two of the most uninhibited images that Bacon ever painted: Two Figures (1953) and Two Figures in the Grass (1954). These interrelated works have not been seen publicly together since the major retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971. After completing Two Figures in the Grass, Bacon did not return to the subject until 1967, the year that homosexual acts in private were decriminalized in England and Wales. That same year he painted Two Figures on a Couch (1967), which was last exhibited in London in 1968 and is also included in Couplings.
Finding that the physical presence of his subjects could prove inhibiting, Bacon painted his figures and portraits both from memory and from photographs—his own, as well as Eadweard Muybridge’s dynamic studies of people in motion, including male wrestlers. Although Bacon was sometimes reluctant to specifically identify the subjects of his paintings, a number of the works in Couplings (a term the artist himself used) were inspired by his fraught, often violent and passionate relationships. His affair with Peter Lacy, a former fighter pilot whom he met in 1952, cooled off after Lacy moved to Tangier, Morocco, in 1956, where Bacon visited him every summer until 1961. But even after Lacy died in 1962, Bacon continued to paint portraits of him, recalling intensely intimate moments in their relationship. In 1963 Bacon met George Dyer, a petty criminal from London’s East End. Dyer succeeded Lacy as Bacon’s lover and model and was the inspiration for many of Bacon’s grandest and most emotive paintings of the male nude. Three works in Couplings suggest a startlingly erotic and sometimes violent relationship between two men, such as the one Bacon and Dyer had: Two Figures on a Couch, the triptych Three Studies of Figures on Beds (1972), and Two Figures with a Monkey (1973)—the last two painted after Dyer’s suicide in 1971.
This is Gagosian’s third exhibition dedicated to Bacon’s work, following Francis Bacon: Late Paintings (2015) and Francis Bacon: Triptychs (2006).
The gallery is deeply grateful to the private lenders to this exhibition, as well as to Leeds Art Gallery, England, and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a previously unpublished interview with Bacon by Richard Francis; an essay by Martin Harrison, author of the acclaimed Bacon catalogue raisonné; and an introduction by Richard Calvocoressi, senior curator at Gagosian. The catalogue will be released in October 2019, to coincide with Frieze London.