As part of the “Parole aux Artistes” conference organised annually by the École du Louvre in Paris since 2005, artists, art historians, curators and collectors are invited to give a lecture on a particular subject or a key figure.
This year, the conference, hosted by Caroline Cros, is dedicated to Francis Bacon.
Majid Boustany, founder of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, will close the seven-lecture cycle by giving a speech on ‘Francis Bacon, Monaco and French Culture’ on Thursday 7 April at 4 p.m. in the amphithéâtre Rohan at the École du Louvre.
Majid Boustany will discuss the influence of Monaco on the artist’s life and work. He will also explain why he decided to establish the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in the Principality, and describe the missions and activities of the Foundation, which is the only non-profit institution in the world dedicated to Francis Bacon. The enduring bonds that this French-speaking, ardently Francophile artist developed with France will also be explored.
The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is taking part in the first Nuit Blanche to be held in Monaco. Our institution will offer free guided tours to its visitors, by appointment only, as follows:
Thursday 28/4/2016 at 10:30 SOLD OUT Thursday 28/4/2016 at 14:30 SOLD OUT Friday 29/4/2016 at 14:30 SOLD OUT Friday 29/4/2016 at 19:00 SOLD OUT Friday 29/4/2016 at 21:00 SOLD OUT
To book your tour, please contact the Foundation headquarters: +377 93 30 30 33 (deadline for booking is Friday 29 April at 14:00).
April 29, 2016, Monaco pulls a Nuit Blanche to celebrate contemporary art:
Spurred by the National Council and by the will of the Princely Government, Monaco is pulling a Nuit Blanche. A stroll full of surprises and unique aesthetic experiences, produced by a select group of internationally-renowned artists in sync with Monegasque cultural institutions. The street, the stage, the sea and the sky, all of Monaco’s dimensions come to life through an offering of works involving a visual, musical and choreographic journey created by Jörg Heiser.
Within the framework of the conferences organised by the Prince Pierre Foundation of Monaco, Majid Boustany, founder of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation and Martin Harrison, author of Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, will give a lecture on ‘Francis Bacon and Monaco’ on Monday 21 March at 6:30 p.m. at the Théâtre des Variétés in Monaco.
Majid Boustany will explain why he decided to establish a foundation in the Principality dedicated to the British Artist Francis Bacon and will detail the missions and activities of this institution.
Then Martin Harrison will discuss the influence of Monaco on Bacon’s life and work. Martin Harrison is the curator of the forthcoming exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum, which will run from 2 July to 4 September 2016, on the theme of ‘Francis Bacon, Monaco and French culture’.
The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is taking part in the organisation of a major exhibition dedicated to Francis Bacon, which will be held at the Grimaldi Forum from the 2nd of July to the 4th of September 2016.
Entitled ‘Francis Bacon, Monaco and French Culture’, the exhibition will present over 60 works by the English artist and will invite us to discover the direct and indirect influence that Monaco and French culture had on his work.
The exhibition is curated by Martin Harrison, author of Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, and the exhibition catalogue will be co-published by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation and Albin Michel.
The first book to be published by the Foundation introduces the objectives of this institution dedicated to the life, work and methodology of Francis Bacon.
The book then throws light on the close ties that Bacon enjoyed with the Principality of Monaco, as well as the South of France and the City of Light.
Two eminent art historians, Martin Harrison and Eddy Batache, enrich the book with their texts.
The book closes with a comprehensive chronology of the artist’s life.
While not available for sale, this book is offered for free to each visitor attending the guided tour of the Foundation
The art historian Katharina Günther was the first recipient of the MB Art Foundation Scholarship. She undertook a twelve-month research project analysing a collection of hitherto un-researched material associated with Francis Bacon. The project aimed to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Bacon and the artist Denis Wirth-Miller.
The Wivenhoe Chapter – Francis Bacon and Denis Wirth-Miller
By Katharina Günther
Bacon Scholar
Denis Wirth-Miller, Study for Dog in Movement, c.1953/54 MB Art Collection
Picture Post Magazine, 29 September 1951, pp. 16 and 17, ‘Racing on Sufferance’ by Denzil Batchelor. MB Art Collection
An eclectic set of over 250 pieces of hitherto unseen and unstudied artist’s working material from the MB Art Collection – books, magazines and torn out pages, some paint-splattered, some overpainted and some mounted on cardboard supports, with imagery on topics ranging from bodybuilding to botany, formed the starting point for the first research project initiated and funded by The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation. The creative sources of inspiration were unearthed from a small studio in the rural town of Wivenhoe, Essex, owned by the painter Denis Wirth-Miller whose close bond with Francis Bacon is virtually forgotten today.
Francis Bacon, Man with Dog, 1953
Denis Wirth-Miller’s studio in Wivenhoe, 2014. Photo: Ben Harrison MB Art Collection
Sharing a passion for gambling, travelling and cookery, the two men were best friends from the late 1940s until Bacon’s death in 1992. Although it was lasting and steady, the most striking characteristic of their friendship appears to have been its fiery nature. Wirth-Miller and his partner Richard Chopping lived in an old merchant’s house overlooking the Colne estuary since 1944. Bacon frequently visited his friend not only to enjoy his hospitality but also to work in Wirth-Miller’s studio at The Store House. Fragments of an early version of Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969 found in the studio after Wirth-Miller’s death and today held by the MB Art Collection bear testimony to Bacon’s activities there. Wirth-Miller was an artist himself who later in his life was best known for his paintings of the local landscape. Stimulated by the encounters with Bacon, he experimented with his famous friend’s subjects and style and in the mid-1950s, produced a series of dog paintings in the manner of Bacon’s Study of a Dog, 1952 and Man with Dog, 1953. Even though he retired from painting in the late 1970s, he kept his studio, which has remained largely untouched since his death in 2010.
Fragment of leaf from Eadweard Muybridge, The Human Figure in Motion, London: Chapman & Hall 1901, p.215: ‘Some Phases in a Wrestling Match’. MB Art Collectio
Mounted fragment from TIME The Weekly Newspaper Atlantic Overseas Edition June 13, 1949, p. 16. Tom Doxsee on trial for murder. MB Art Collection
During the course of one year, the items were thoroughly studied and carefully evaluated with the intention of gaining a better understanding of the material itself, the two men’s relationship to it and Bacon’s largely obscure activities in the East Anglian countryside. The chaotic arrangement of a myriad of images in Wivenhoe is highly evocative of the knee-deep layers of printed matter Bacon accumulated at his atelier at 7 Reece Mews, London. At first sight, the pictures of humans and animals in movement, street scenes and reproductions of artworks in The Store House strongly resemble the battered and tattered leaves which Bacon used as formal starting points for his painted imagery. Yet, meticulous comparative research with the contents of Reece Mews indicate that they were used by Wirth-Miller alone. Moreover, the direct pictorial sources for his dog paintings were found amongst the detritus.
With its strong resemblance to his London studio, the overall set-up of Wirth-Miller’s Wivenhoe atelier must have been to Bacon’s liking. For almost 25 years, he shared the small, cluttered space with Wirth-Miller on a regular basis until in 1975, Bacon bought his own property close to his friend’s house. In the working environment provided by Wirth-Miller, Bacon had found an artistic home away from home.
Torn leaf (Plate 148) from A.G. Tansley, The British Islands and Their Vegetation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, first impression 1939, fourth impression 1965. ‘Active Ammophiletum’. MB Art Collection
Torn leaf, folded, from Illustrated Magazine, August 28 1954, pp. 49 and 50, leaf torn from magazine. ”Taming’ lions – the game of death’, pp. 49-54, Illustrated Book Choice, part two excerpts from book: Oskar Koenig, Pori Tupu, Michael Joseph: London 1954. MB Art Collection
Francis Bacon’s Study for a Portrait (1953) is the focus of an installation by James Richards at the Whitechapel Gallery, which is supported by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation.
Creating an immersive environment, artist James Richards accompanies the painting (selected from the V-A-C collection) with a sound installation of public silences – acts of mourning, remembrance, or suspenseful pauses in films. Singers inhale and pause before breaking into song while church bells fill the gallery with ambient sounds.
The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation was inaugurated today, on what would be Francis Bacon’s 105th birthday, by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The event was attended by the Minister of State, His Excellency Michel Roger, Mr Paul Masseron, Government Counsellor for the Interior, His Excellency Bernard Fautrier and members of The Estate of Francis Bacon. H.S.H. Prince Albert II was introduced to the Foundation’s display of artefacts and artworks by the Foundation’s Founder, Majid Boustany and Martin Harrison, Editor of The Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné.
The art historian Katharina Günther is the first scholar to be sponsored by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, to undertake a twelve-month research project analysing a collection of hitherto un-researched material associated with Francis Bacon.
The project aims to deepen the understanding of the material, its context and relevance for the artist. Further information on her research will be released next year.
