An exhibition "Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and the London School" opens in the Pushkin Museum

March 5 at the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin opens the exhibition "Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and the London School." The exhibition will feature 80 paintings and graphic works from the collection of the Tate Gallery.

Previously, the exhibition was successfully held in London, Los Angeles, Malaga and Aarhus. In total, it was visited by more than 600 thousand spectators.

For the first time, the Russian audience will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the unique and most significant chapter in the history of modern British art, associated with the use of figurative painting by artists as a means of expressing a deeply personal, sensual and intense experience of life.

Despite the worldwide fame of most of the masters, whose names are usually associated with the so-called London School, monographs of Francis Bacon were held in Russia, and only occasionally single works by Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff were exhibited. Exhibition at the Pushkin Museum to them. A.S. Pushkin is called upon to correct this situation and to reflect such a noticeable phenomenon as the London School with the utmost completeness. This combination of bright individuals who met in London, were friends with each other and worked in close proximity to each other, left a bright mark on world art after World War II and contributed to the revival of interest in the figurative picture in other countries.

The focus of the artists of the London School was on the human body, the transfer of fragility and at the same time the viability of which are devoted to many works of artists. The incredible carefulness of observing the model is a characteristic feature of Lucien Freud's work, which made him the most famous portrait painter of our time.

Along with the appeal to the human figure for the artists of the London School is characterized by interest in the landscape genre. The images of London created by them are connected with personal stories and the subjective perception of the city, in the metaphorical sense they turn out to be a kind of existential self-portraits of their authors. Painting how deeply the autobiographical process is what interested the artists represented at this exhibition.

Artists of the London School developed complex plots, focusing on the dynamics and aesthetics of social relations. Francis Bacon has repeatedly spoken about the desire to escape from narrative, but his work retains an incessant story about his personal life, relationships and losses. Michael Andrews and R. B. China, in turn, created images based on literary sources, photographs and works of other artists.

The exhibition "Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and the London School", which is organized with the support of VTB Bank, will unfold on the main exhibition axis of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin.

05 MAR - 19 MAY 2019
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts