National Portrait Gallery stages its first major exhibition of portraits by Francis Bacon.
Opening on 10 October, Francis Bacon: Human Presence will be the first exhibition in nearly 20 years to place its focus on the artist’s portraits.
Charting Francis Bacon’s career through more than 50 of the artist’s paintings, the exhibition will explore Bacon’s engagement with portraiture from the late 1940s, with a focus on self-portraits and images of key sitters made from the early 1950s onwards, including lovers Peter Lacy, George Dyer and John Edwards and friends Isabel Rawsthorne, Henrietta Moraes, Lucian Freud and Muriel Belcher.
Bringing Bacon and his sitters to life in an unparalleled way, paintings will be displayed alongside rarely-seen photographs and portraits of Bacon from the Gallery’s Collection – captured by leading twentieth-century photographers including Cecil Beaton, Arnold Newman and Bill Brandt.
Francis Bacon has long been considered one of the most outstanding painters of the twentieth century. Best known as a figurative artist, his work transforms the appearance of his subjects through an extraordinary use of paint. Francis Bacon: Human Presence (10 October 2024 – 19 January 2025) will be the National Portrait Gallery’s first exhibition to focus on the work of this important artist and will explore Bacon’s deep and complex engagement with portraiture – from his responses to portraits by earlier artists, to large-scale triptychs memorialising lost lovers.
Through five key phases – Portraits Emerge, Beyond Appearance, Painting from the Masters, Self Portraits, and Friends and Lovers – the exhibition will chart the remarkable evolution of Bacon’s practice, exploring how he both embraced and challenged the traditional definitions of portraiture.
The exhibition publication Francis Bacon: Human Presence, written by curator Rosie Broadley, will be available from October 2024.
Francis Bacon: Human Presence
10 October 2024 – 19 January 2025 - National Portrait Gallery, London
Tickets: £23, with concession from £1; Members visit free
Open daily: 10.30 - 18.00
Friday & Saturday 10.30 - 21.00
Further Information: Home - National Portrait Gallery (npg.org.uk)
Tickets: Francis Bacon: Human Presence