About
The moment a number of figures become involved, you immediately come on to the storytelling aspect of the relationships between figures. And that immediately sets up a kind of narrative. I always hope to be able to make a great number of figures without a narrative.
—Francis Bacon
Gagosian is pleased to present Couplings, an exhibition of Francis Bacon’s double-figure paintings.
Bacon’s disturbing images—his portrayals of friends and fellow artists, and the deformations and stylistic distortions of classical subjects—radically altered the genre of figurative painting in the twentieth century. In Bacon’s paintings, the human presence is evoked sometimes viscerally, at other times more fleetingly, in the form of a shadow or a blurred, watchful figure. In certain instances, the portrayal takes the form of a composite in which male and female bodily traits are transposed or fused. This selective exhibition explores a theme that preoccupied Bacon throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
At the heart of the exhibition are two of the most uninhibited images that Bacon ever painted: Two Figures (1953) and Two Figures in the Grass (1954). These interrelated works have not been seen publicly together since the major retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971. After completing Two Figures in the Grass, Bacon did not return to the subject until 1967, the year that homosexual acts in private were decriminalized in England and Wales. That same year he painted Two Figures on a Couch (1967), which was last exhibited in London in 1968 and is also included in Couplings.
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Francis Bacon: Couplings
Richard Calvocoressi provides an in-depth view of the exhibition Francis Bacon: Couplings at Gagosian, London, examining a theme that preoccupied the artist throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological.
Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews
Join Jake Auerbach, Richard Calvocoressi, Bella Freud, Martin Gayford, and Florence Hallett as they discuss the work and legacy of four era-defining artists. Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, recently on view at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, elucidated the connections between their respective practices, and featured some of the artists’ portraits of one another.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022
The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.
Bruce Bernard: Portraits of Friends
Virginia Verran details the photographer’s friendships with the London painters.
Frank Auerbach: Artist Friends
In this candid interview with Richard Calvocoressi, the painter Frank Auerbach reminisces on his friendships with Michael Andrews, Francis Bacon, and Lucian Freud. The two spoke during the planning of the exhibition Friends and Relations, a show that examines the interconnected lives and art practices of this group of London painters.
Francis Bacon: The First Pope
Richard Calvocoressi tells the story of Francis Bacon’s first image of the pope, ‘Landscape with Pope/Dictator’, c. 1946.
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In Conversation
Richard Calvocoressi and Martin Harrison on Francis Bacon
Friday, October 4, 2019, 5:30–7:30pm
Hatchards, Piccadilly, London
hatchards.co.uk
Join Gagosian at Hatchards, London’s oldest bookshop, to celebrate the publication of Francis Bacon: Couplings. Gagosian curator Richard Calvocoressi and leading Bacon scholar Martin Harrison, both contributors to the catalogue, will discuss the artist’s double-figure paintings, which were recently on view at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. To attend the free event, RSVP to baconrsvp@gagosian.com. Space is limited.
Francis Bacon: Couplings (London: Gagosian, 2019). Artwork © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved/DACS, London/Artimage 2019
Tour
Francis Bacon
Couplings
Wednesday, June 19, 2019, 6pm
Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London
Gagosian director and art historian Richard Calvocoressi will lead a tour of the exhibition Francis Bacon: Couplings at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. The exhibition of Bacon’s double-figure paintings explores a theme that preoccupied the artist throughout his career: the relationship between two people, both physical and psychological. The event has reached capacity. To join the wait list, contact londontours@gagosian.com.
Installation view, Francis Bacon: Couplings, Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, June 6–August 3, 2019. Artwork © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2019. Photo: Mike Bruce