Artist: Francis Bacon
Title: Marlborough Gallery, April 26 – June 7, 1980
Poster Format: 39 1/2 x 26 inches
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1901 this prominent British painter and printmaker created controversial contemporary art until his death in 1992. Despite his lack of formal training, in 1945 he gained recognition after an exhibition at Lefevre Gallery in London that included his Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. Bacon's figures in this work, and in many others, were distorted, fleshy masses in the throes of apparent anguish. These unsettling images were his representations of the evil and devastation of the human condition.
Bacon's prints, consistent with the paradoxical nature of his oil works, are based on a selection of 35 paintings dating from 1965 through 1991. Bacon worked with skilled printers to create this relatively small body of etchings and lithographs which totaled about 40 editions.
Bacon's works are part of public collections the world over, including: Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, Norway; Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery in Birmingham, England; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; Kunsthaus Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imbert in Caracas, Venezuela; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas; Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy; Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg in Austria; Sprengel Museum Hannover in Hannover, Germany; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Gent, Belgium; Tate Britain in London, England; and the Tate Modern in London, England.
