Francis Bacon
A Terrible Beauty
28 October 2009 – 7 March 2010
Charlemont House
Parnell Square North
Dublin 1
Ireland
Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty is curated by Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane to celebrate Bacon’s centenary and the immense archive of Francis Bacon’s studio material. This is The Hugh Lane’s first major showing of the archival material since receiving the Studio in 1998.
We are delighted to exhibit this extraordinary resource alongside selected paintings dating from 1944 to 1989, many of which have been rarely exhibited.
We open the exhibition on the 28th October 2009, exactly 100 years since his birth at 63 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin.
Francis Bacon’s Studio was originally located in 7 Reece Mews, London. The donation of the Studio to Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane was made by Bacon’s heir, John Edwards and supported by Brian Clarke, executor of the artist’s Estate. The Hugh Lane team archaeologically retrieved over 7000 items from the studio and catalogued them before removing the material along with the architectural features to Dublin.
The Studio was reconstructed in the Gallery and opened to the public in 2001. The removal and relocation of Bacon’s Studio and the subsequent compilation of the database of the archival material is acknowledged as one of the most pioneering and successful realisations of preserving and displaying an artist’s studio.
The focus of Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty is on new material from the archive exhibited for the first time. This material illuminates the methods and motives behind the work of one of the principal artists of the 20th century and offers us a new understanding of Bacon’s work and artistic practice.
The archive provides a lexicon for the interpretation of Francis Bacon’s paintings and no future scholarship is valid without consulting this great resource. Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty provides a unique opportunity to reappraise the artist’s oeuvre through the selected paintings supported by previously unseen material from the archive.
A full colour illustrated catalogue published by Steidl accompanies this exhibition with texts by Rebecca Daniels, Barbara Dawson, Marcel Finke, Martin Harrison, Jessica O’Donnell, Joanna Shepard and Logan Sisley.
The exhibition is curated by Barbara Dawson and Martin Harrison.
Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty
28 October 2009 – 7 March 2010
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
Parnell Square, Dublin 1, Ireland
For further information please contact: Dairne O’Sullivan, Press and Marketing Manager Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane dairne.osullivan@dublincity.ie or 00 353 1 222 5568
