Lucian Freud: “Sleeping by the Lion Carpet”, 1996. Private Collection / © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images. Image courtesy Acquavella Galleries
‘All Too Human: Bacon, Freud’ at Tate ‘All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life’: A landmark exhibition at Tate Britain celebrates how artists have captured the intense experience of life in paint. 28 February – 27 August 2018.]]>
Source: Tate Britain
”All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life” showcases around 100 works by some of the most celebrated modern British artists, with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon at its heart. It reveals how their art captures personal and immediate experiences and events, distilling raw sensations through their use of paint, as Freud said: ‘I want the paint to work as flesh does’. Bringing together major works by Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer, Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, R.B. Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Paula Rego, Jenny Saville, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and many others, this exhibition makes poignant connections across generations of artists and tell an expanded story of figurative painting in the 20th century.
Groups of major and rarely seen works by Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon give visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the rich sensuality and intimacy of these two modern masters. Key paintings spanning Freud’s career explore his studio as both context and subject of his work and show how his unflinchingly honest depictions of models became more sculptural and visceral over time, in works such as “Frank Auerbach”, 1975-6, and “Sleeping by the Lion Carpet”, 1996. In contrast to Freud’s practice of working from life, the exhibition looks at Bacon’s relationship with photographer John Deakin, whose portraits of friends and lovers were often the starting point for Bacon’s work, including “Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne”, 1966. Earlier works by Bacon like “Study after Velazquez”, 1950 are shown alongside a sculpture by Giacometti, both artists having explored the enduring presence of isolated figures.
”All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life” is curated at Tate Britain by Elena Crippa, Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, and Laura Castagnini, Assistant Curator.
Related content
Record-breaking Bacon at Christie’s record-breaking sale (news, 2013)
Follow us on:
