Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art
Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art, an exhibition co-curated by Franziska Nori (Director of the CCC Strozzina) and Barbara Dawson (Director of the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane), will be presenting work by contemporary artists who exam today鈥檚 existential state of societal mind. Their work explores the kind of questions man asks himself in his relationship with his own interior being, his body and the outside world. At the core of the exhibition are paintings by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), whose work is placed in dialogue with that of five contemporary artists of international renown: Nathalie Djurberg, Adrian Ghenie, Arcangelo Sassolino, Chiharu Shiota and Annegret Soltau. These artists share Bacon鈥檚 reflection on man鈥檚 existential condition and on the depiction of the human figure.
Bacon鈥檚 paintings on display are set against a selection of photographic and hardcopy material from the artist鈥檚 archive: photo portraits, reproductions of masterpieces of the past, film stills, and pictures from books and magazines. This material, which Bacon used as a working tool when creating his art, is presented in the exhibition thanks to the CCC Strozzina鈥檚 cooperation with the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, which acquired an authentic and perfectly preserved reconstruction of the artist鈥檚 last London workshop in 1998.
His mingling of the figurative and the abstract, his bodies transfigured, his reference to autobiographical elements, his use of a variety of different iconographic sources and of tension and isolation as metaphors of man鈥檚 life can also be found as crucial aspects of in the work of the five contemporary artists that is arranged in a situation of dialogue with Bacon in an effort to trigger an existential reflection on contemporary living.
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Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art, an exhibition co-curated by Franziska Nori (Director of the CCC Strozzina) and Barbara Dawson (Director of the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane), will be presenting work by contemporary artists who exam today鈥檚 existential state of societal mind. Their work explores the kind of questions man asks himself in his relationship with his own interior being, his body and the outside world. At the core of the exhibition are paintings by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), whose work is placed in dialogue with that of five contemporary artists of international renown: Nathalie Djurberg, Adrian Ghenie, Arcangelo Sassolino, Chiharu Shiota and Annegret Soltau. These artists share Bacon鈥檚 reflection on man鈥檚 existential condition and on the depiction of the human figure.
Bacon鈥檚 paintings on display are set against a selection of photographic and hardcopy material from the artist鈥檚 archive: photo portraits, reproductions of masterpieces of the past, film stills, and pictures from books and magazines. This material, which Bacon used as a working tool when creating his art, is presented in the exhibition thanks to the CCC Strozzina鈥檚 cooperation with the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, which acquired an authentic and perfectly preserved reconstruction of the artist鈥檚 last London workshop in 1998.
His mingling of the figurative and the abstract, his bodies transfigured, his reference to autobiographical elements, his use of a variety of different iconographic sources and of tension and isolation as metaphors of man鈥檚 life can also be found as crucial aspects of in the work of the five contemporary artists that is arranged in a situation of dialogue with Bacon in an effort to trigger an existential reflection on contemporary living.
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