The new show opening at Tate Britain to mark 50 years since the relaxation of the laws relating to homosexuality folowing the Wolfenden Report inevitably brings to mind the great supporter of gay artists in the 1940s and 1950s, Peter Watson. Watson only really started to focus on British art when he was forced to return to London from Paris [Read More…]
Results for search of category: Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon. Catalogue Raisonné. 5 Volumes.
Beautifully and meticulously produced, these five volumes are a magnificent work. Martin Harrison and Rebecca Daniels have laboured for many years to produce them: the result is surely a model of what a dedicated team can do if given sufficient time and resources. High quality catalogues of this type underpin the ability of scholars to study the work of a given artist seriously and in detail. The volumes are overwhelmingly scholarly and informative. Rather than seeking to contribute directly to the long-running debate about the meaning of Bacon’s work, they contribute indirectly by displaying the material which can enable objective analysis.
Rina Arya. “Francis Bacon. Painting in a Godless World”
Farnham 2012 ISBN: 978-1-84822-044-7
Not all writers about Bacon have been able to write so clearly. But the interpretation of Bacon’s paintings is not a task where “success” is possible. The task facing the author of trying to analyse works created intuitively was never going to be easy. As ever with a great artist, we are left with the pictures speaking to us in whatever way we choose to hear them.
Peter Watson and Horizon
On 1st February 2013 I gave a lecture at the Sotheby’s Institute in Bedford Square, under the auspices of the Burlington Magazine, about the art contributions to Horizon. This is a very brief synopsis. A transcript of my lecture is available on request. Founded at the end of 1939, Horizon was funded by Watson. The initial editors were Cyril Connolly [Read More…]
Peter Watson and Francis Bacon
As work on Watson’s biography continues, one thing which is becoming apparent is the importance to Bacon at certain points in the development of his reputation of his link with Peter Watson. It is unknown when they actually met. They moved in the same part of the London art world and may well have met during or shortly after the [Read More…]
British art in America
Back from New York and Minneapolis. In MOMA saw various Francis Bacon’s: a 1991 triptych, which must have been one of his last pictures; a Pope; and Study of a Baboon from 1953. The latter came from James Thrall Soby. I have come across him in the context of my Peter Watson research, as correspondence survives between them, although they [Read More…]
Vienna
Just back from Vienna where we saw a Henry Moore sculpture called Hill Arches in the Karlsplatz outside the Karlskirche and a Francis Bacon (Seated Figure of 1960) in the Albertina. Otherwise we were conscious that we were in the City where Cecil Beaton met Watson for the first time in the Summer of 1930.
Exhibitions in 2012
Diary starting to fill with next year’s stuff.  John Piper will be having more publicity. “John Piper and the Church” is going to be at Dorchester Abbey from 21st April to 10th June. “John Piper:the Gyselynck Collection” will be at the River and Rowing Museum, Henley from 3rd March to 8th October and “John Piper: The Mountains of Wales” will be [Read More…]
Review of 2009/10 Auerbach and Bacon exhibitions/books
Published in the British Art Journal, XI, 1, 2010
Graham Sutherland. Landscapes, War Scenes, Portraits 1924-1950; Bacon and Sutherland; Francis Bacon’s Studio
Published in the British Art Journal, VI, 3, Winter 2005