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- Francis Bacon
- Also known as
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Francis Bacon
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primary name: Bacon, Francis
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1909-1992
- Biography
- Painter
Born in Dublin of English parents in 1909. Childhood asthma prevented any conventional education or art training. As a teenager he worked for his father, a race horse trainer. In the mid 1930s he lived in Berlin and Paris and in London worked as an interior decorator and furniture designer. He began painting in the late 1920s, settled in London in 1929 and in 1934 had his first solo show at the Transition Gallery. In 1937 he exhibited at Agnew in 'Young English Painters'. A series of one-man shows followed at the Hanover Gallery from 1949 (he remained with that gallery until he transferred to Marlborough Fine Art in 1958). He was exempt from service during WWII. He exhibited 'Studies for Figures at a Base of a Crucifixion' at the Lefevre Gallery in 1945. His first solo show in the USA was held at Durlurcher Bros. New York in 1953 and in Paris, Galerie Rive Gauche in 1957. There followed a series of one-man shows including the ICA, 1955; Tate Gallery - with European and American tours - 1962-4; a further Tate Gallery exhibition in 1985 and in 1990-1 at Tate Gallery, Liverpool. Retrospective exhibitions were held at Centre George Pompidou, Paris and Haus der Kunst, Munich in 1996; the Hayward Gallery in 1998. His studio was donated to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin in 2000. From 1961 Bacon lived in Reece Mews South Kensington, London, but died in Madrid in April 1992. His work is held in Tate Britain and many other international collections.
- Bibliography
- Brighton, Andrew. 'Francis Bacon'. London: Tate Publishing, 2001
Edwards, John.'7 Reece Mews: Francis Bacon's Studio' London: Thames & Hudson, 2001
Gale, Matthew & Sylvester David. 'Francis Bacon: Working on Paper', London: Tate Publishing, 1999
Hammer, Martin. 'Francis Bacon: Portraits and Heads', Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2005
Kundera, Milan & Borel, France. 'Bacon: Portraits and Self-portraits' London: Thames & Hudson, 1996.
Peppiatt, Michael. 'Francis Bacon in the 1950s', London: Yale University Press, 2006.
Russell, John. Francis Bacon. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993.
Sabatier, Bruno. "The Complete Graphic Work, Catalogue Raisonné", Paris, JSC Gallery, 2012.
Sylvester, David.'Interviews with Francis Bacon' London: Thames & Hudson, 1987.
Sylvester, David.'Looking Back at Francis Bacon' London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
Sylvester, David. 'Francis Bacon: The Human Body' London: Hayward Gallery, 1998.