Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Drawings 'attributed' to Francis Bacon.

Before I leave Berlin it was great to be able to catch a fascinating exhibit at two intimate locations in the city. Galleria Nove & Werkstattgallerie are displaying a controversial collection of around fifty drawings 'attributed' to Francis Bacon.

From a complete amateur's perspective I was a little skeptical but was told that authentication beyond all doubt, was imminent.


From the press release by curator Edward Lucie-Smith: As everyone interested in Bacon’s work knows, Bacon many times, and often vehemently, denied that he made any use of drawing. This is contradicted however by an early interview with the critic David Sylvester (Bacon’s most frequent interlocutor), which is preserved on film. In it, Bacon admits that he does draw, but coyly says that puts his drawings aside and doesn’t look at them, when the moment comes to paint a picture. Yet, since Bacon’s lonely death in Madrid in 1992, a mass of evidence has emerged to show that he not only did draw, but drew prolifically.

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