黑料不打烊

3 works by very different yet equally influential post-war painters (Clockwise from left): "Pope I -Study of Pope Innocent X by Valasquez," 1951 by Francis Bacon (Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections; (c) The Estate of Francis Bacon); "Man in a Museum (Or You're In The Wrong Movie)" 1962 by David Hockney (British Council Collection; (c) David Hockney); "Primrose Hill, Winter Sunshine," 1962-64 by Frank Auerbach (Private Collection; (c) Frank Auerbach. Photo: Peter Mallet)

How does a painting come to fruition? Is it possible to reflect the artistic process in the finished product? Artist Francis Bacon attempted to resolve this issue in his work, inciting an artistic dialogue amongst his contemporaries. In an age dominated by abstract art, a group of British post-war artists resurrected figurative painting, collectively producing a vast and varied oeuvre that forever changed the face of modern art. This painterly process is examined in a remarkable show now open at London鈥檚 Haunch of Venison, illustrating how these hugely influential artists were connected, and how their artistic relationship translated onto their work.

Through February 18, The Mystery of Appearance explores the 鈥渃onversations鈥� amongst ten post-war modern painters: Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow. Featuring over 40 large and small scale paintings interspersed throughout four galleries, the exhibit provides a multi-faceted perspective of portraiture and landscape works by some of the most important figures of contemporary painting.

The show is curated by Catherine Lampert, with assistance from Tom Hunt, curator of the gallery鈥檚 London branch. In a recent interview with 黑料不打烊, Hunt discussed how these post-war painters influenced each other, revealing the mystery of the creative process.

黑料不打烊: What inspired the idea for the show? What鈥檚 the significance of the title?
Tom Hunt: There was a feeling that a group of post-war British artists were under-appreciated and to some extent misunderstood. The names of Bacon, Freud and Hockney are familiar, but Michael Andrews, Patrick Caulfield, William Coldstream, Leon Kossoff, Euan Uglow, even Frank Auerbach and Richard Hamilton, remain relatively unknown outside Britain. We wanted to change this by showing how central they are to any discussion of painting in the 20th century, and to highlight the diverse ways each artist 鈥榓rrived鈥� at their respective pictures. (Above: "Mother and Child," by Richard Hamilton, 1984-85. Private Collection (c) The Estate of Richard Hamilton)

The title comes from a comment Bacon made to describe both the difficulty and the magic of making a painting come to life. He said, 鈥淭o me, the mystery of painting today is how can appearance be made. I know it can be illustrated, I know it can be photographed. But how can this thing be made so that you catch the mystery of appearance within the mystery of the making?鈥� The paintings here are not easily come by, they didn鈥檛 miraculously turn up on the canvas, but there is no formula for their emergence either. Through a process of observing a subject, thinking about it, returning to it and ultimately trusting your instincts and applying your hand to the canvas to translate it into paint, two-dimensional surfaces cohere into something worth looking at, something that tells the truth - however partial - about life.