This month, the Francis Bacon: Human Presence exhibit opened at the National Portrait Gallery.
As part of the gallery's youth forum, I was able to visit for free; tickets are usually £23, but free for members. The exhibit features more than 50 of Bacon's works from the 1940s to his last pieces. It explores Bacon's connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional values in this art form.
My viewing experience began outside the gallery with a brief introduction to Francis Bacon by artist Beatrice Dallas. She mentioned Bacon's inspiration from film and his personal life, which he himself did not like to delve into deeply but definitely influenced his artistic persona.
Whether you're a big fan of Francis Bacon or not, this exhibit was wonderfully curated. It provided a clear timeline of his life and development as an artist, and gave clear context to all of his pieces, making for easy viewing. This is of course an exhibition of Francis Bacon's work as an artist, but I also appreciated the choice to present his personality to the viewer, bringing him to life by including pictures and mentions of his artistic process, the public's and other artists perspectives of him at the time, and even a recorded BBC interview played continuously. A quote that really stuck with me in this interview is where Bacon discusses how the artist of the future is going to struggle more "because he must really deepen the game to be any good at all, and return the onlooker to life more violently."
I hope my review didn't spoil too much and inspires you to take a trip yourself to see some of Francis Bacon's work and learn who he really was.
