Bacon/Freud

21 June - 31 August 2023

Dellasposa Gallery is delighted to present Bacon/Freud, an exhibition of works by Modern British artists Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

Showcasing the artists' unique and innovative approach to portraiture and figuration, the exhibition captures the complexities of the human form and psyche explored through both artists' raw, visceral, and emotionally charged works. In post-war London, a new avant-garde emerged from the rubble of the city that had experienced a profound impact on its physical and cultural landscape. WWII had brought a sense of loss, trauma, and a desire for renewal that influenced the artistic expressions of the post-war period. Chief among these 'School of London' artists was Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, who were determinedly figurative artists; they did not share the same imperative the break free from the influences of their artistic predecessors, just as Abstract Expressionism - exemplified by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning's expressive and non-representational qualities - were ascendence in America.
Bacon first met Freud in 1945 by way of an introduction from fellow artist Graham Sutherland. 'Once I met him, I saw him a lot,' Freud recalled. Bacon, the older artist of the two, welcomed the quick-witted vitality of the great Sigmund Freud's grandson. They soon enjoyed an intense and fruitful friendship, seeing each other nearly daily, whether in studios or the various bohemian haunts of Soho that they frequented. They discussed every aspect of art from antiquity onwards, while their aesthetic aims and artistic practices provided a firm basis for a friendship grounded by a shared love of living life on the wild side. It was only natural that these two artists, in each other's company so much, would share their interests and themes in modern art.

Less well-known to the artists' practices are the impressive graphic works that form the subject of this exhibition. As celebrated painters of the human figure, both Bacon and Freud turned their attention to printmaking; a medium that formed a dialogue with their paintings, with each informing the other.
- Francis Bacon
  Study of a Human Body after Ingres, 1984
- Lucian Freud
  Head and Shoulders of a Girl, 1990
Each artist's approach to portraiture could hardly have been more different, with Freud working from life from a sitter directly before him for weeks on end in delicate, finely applied strokes and Bacon preferring to work impulsively from photographs in thick swathes of violently contrasting colour. While both Bacon and Freud delved into the psychological aspects of their subjects, their interests and techniques differed. Bacon's work tended to emphasise the emotional and existential aspects of the human condition, often conveying a sense of anguish and existential angst. Meanwhile, Freud focused more on the psychological intimacy between the sitter and the artist, exploring the complexities of human relationships and the vulnerability of the individual.
Lucian Freud came to etching as a draughtsman. His natural observation of textures, surfaces, and attention to detail within the constraints of a sophisticated line translated well to etching. The sincerity with which he examined the human form and physicality of flesh realised in his paintings informed his etchings, becoming an extension of the artist's work as a painter. Freud developed a way of conveying a sense of suppleness in his etchings by using small areas of hatched shading and outlines that are softened by repetition. By conceiving his etchings in terms of loosely associated lines that apply the breadth and freedom of a loaded brush, Freud brought to his prints much of the power of his paintings: 'I want to do paintings with the etching process', he stated.
Artworks
Lucian Freud
Man Posing, 1985
The connection between Freud's paintings and prints is complex, with several of his etchings depicting a particular subject before he began working on a related painting. Man Posing (1985) was completed before his respective Painter and Model (1986-7). In the painting, the composition is extended to feature the 'painter' (a woman) standing beside the sofa, holding a paintbrush, with squeezed tubes of paint on the floor of her feet. The etching shows much of the same detail as the corresponding area of the painting, but from a closer, higher viewpoint. This is not a change from the painting; it is an independent representation deriving from a different sitting by the model. Although similar, the subject matter is significantly different. The man's gaze seems to be directed toward the viewer, while his gaze is averted in the painting. In the etching, Freud's differentiated use of certain lines to shade forms and others to describe body hair exploits his growing command of the medium's possibilities. This is entirely consonant with Freud's ideas of pictorial truth: 'I feel it is immoral to put anything in that isn't there. But it is not necessarily immoral to leave out something that is there.'
Artworks
Francis Bacon
Triptych 1991 (right panel), 1991
Francis Bacon's graphic works, in all their diversity, have their history parallel to the production of his monumental paintings and his exhibitions. Most of these works are interpretations rather than reflections of his paintings. At times, a print is the only evidence of a painting in a state not now lost to us. Or, again, a print exists where there is no equivalent in painted form. Moreover, the artist's selective process in his practice is far from neutral - his prints are evidence of the artist's desire to turn a spotlight onto a particular work and re-envision a painting in the form of a multiplicity of images. Bacon, whose paintings were often based upon photographic images and press cuttings, considered the significance of printmaking as a process of passing from painting to image to multiple images, thereby adding a deeper dimension to his artistic practice.

£ 17,800 + ARR
The primary element in Francis Bacon's work was the human figure: the man whose face is in motion, in the grip of a thousand daily cataclysms, which he had the talent to transfigure into one essential, enduring moment through art. The portrait occupies primordial importance within in work. What fascinated Bacon above and beyond appearance, what reinforced his artistic practice, was the essence of a person. He preserved enough resemblance to recognise his model while avoiding everything obstructing the authentic creation. Rejecting direct representation to achieve a new sense of reality without renouncing the essential features of one's appearance was the manner he sought to observe in his portraits.

The oscillation between faithfulness to likeness and the demand for an independent reality finds the point of equilibrium in Bacon's work that André Malreaux wrote, 'Every great figurative work makes reference to what it represents, and becomes a work of art through what separates the two.' 'My painting', said Bacon, 'only aims to make life more intense.' He would also say that a real work of art 'opens the valves of feeling.' Art is there to open the 'valves' one keeps firmly closed within ourselves, thus limiting our visions and possibilities and revealing new horizons.
Artworks
Francis Bacon
Triptych inspired by Oresteia of Aeschylus, 1981
Three Lithographs in colours on one sheet of Arches Infinity watermarked paper, with full margins
Signed by the artist in pencil, lower left on recto
With the printers blindstamp, llower left on recto
Each Plate: 40 x 30 cm
Sheet: 53.5 x 103.5 cm
Framed: 72.8 x 126.2 cm
Edition of 150
£ 20,700 + ARR

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