It was a great pleasure to produce this for Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane , for 'Francis Bacon A Terrible Beauty ' Centenary Exhibition 28th October 2009 - 7th March 2010 for more information go to: www.hughlane.ie
Bacon was a mad genius! His studio was pure chaos. The book "Francis Bacon's Studio" by Margarita Cappock is quite remarkable. It details & diagrams every brush, tool, photo, & piece of detritus found on the floor of his studio. Unfortunately it's now out of print & rare. I'm fortunate enough to own a copy. There are copies being sold on eBay.
I had a photo of Bacons studio that i was lucky enough to find on a double page spread in a news paper, on my studio wall at university 20 years ago. Fuck, I'd love to go and see it...in the flesh, so to speak!
this is the original room. If you watch the film through, you'll hear how (and why) they completely and meticulously dismantled the studio in London, to move it to Dublin. It can be viewed year round in Dublin, and is well worth a visit!
I hung out with john a lot in the 90s he hade a place by my dads house in florida I got to see some of francis bacons art up close very awesome treat,john was a nice guy he was cool to drink with ill never forget those times
+virgil6091 I agree. John was a lovely bloke and a great friend to Francis. Sad that he died so young. I used to write his cheques for him in the Colony Room Club. I liked Philip too.
@@classicalmusic1175 course he was an Irishman. All the best artist poets come from Ireland. A typical Brit. If someone is good T something and live in Britain the brits claim there British 😂
His studio reminds me of my own. I can't create in a sterile environment, I need to have art, paint, mess, paper, all around me! Otherwise I feel like I'm creatively limited. Id seen other artists, paint or create in beautifully clear, white or neutral spaces and thought 'shit am I doing something wrong', but I think a lot of us enjoy the chaos of creation rather than doing it in measured capacities.
En 1977 j'accompagnai mon amie Anne Feron à la Galerie Claude Bernard à Paris lors d'un vernissage de quelques oeuvres de FRANCIS BACON. Sa technique magistrale n'a jamais réussi à vaincre le malaise que je ressens en examinant l'autodestruction omniprésente. J'admire son oeuvre mais mais elle est insupportable pour moi , encore maintenant ! Claude Bernard a dit que je ne connaissais rien et que en tout cas je n'aurais pas les moyens d'acheter et que c'était surtout un placement d'argent !
It's strange. Francis Bacon moved away from Ireland, probably because it wasn't a conducive environment for his artwork; he settled in London and created his masterpieces there. Naturally we would say his studio should remain there but it would be quite hypocritical of me to say that whilst at the same time revelling in the Elgin Marbles every time I go to the British Museum; despite them having a rightful home in the Parthenon. It's hard; and easy to fall on either side of the argument.
they took the contents and recreated it. what gets me FB lived and worked most of his life in London Ireland wasn't conducive to him in his lifetime. We should have kept it here
I understand your point, but if it had been left in 7 Reece Mews the public would not have had access to the studio (not least because of health and safety concerns), much of the source material used by Bacon in the formation of his images would still be a mystery, and many of the unfinished paintings found in the studio would not be accessible. It was really a case of documenting and moving a single room or allowing the whole thing to be permanently dismantled. Unless, of course, you have any better ideas of how the space could have been preserved and still provide Bacon scholars and people more generally interested in his work with access to the wealth of visual material now available?
