Despite Francis Bacon and Bruce Nauman being of different generations and having little in common in terms of artistic background, juxtaposing their work prompted a salutary new look at these two major 20th-century creative artists. Over and above their differences in terms of medium and fields of exploration, they share an experimental conception of art and a fascination with the body ‒ its potential to be distorted, transformed, assaulted and its animality ‒ and both explore notions of physical and psychological constraint and hindrance in their work.
This exhibition, devised by Cécile Debray, the Senior Curator of the Musée national d’art moderne-Centre Pompidou, was organised around a group of about ten major artworks generously lent by the Centre Pompidou as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations. The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation lent two paintings by Francis Bacon for the exhibition, Figure with Monkey (1951) and Study for a Portrait (1979), and supplied several photographs for the exhibition catalogue.
Other important loans by important museums and private collectors completed the selection of artworks, offering the public a display of about sixty works – paintings, drawings, sculptures, neon art, videos and installations – an itinerary in the image of the two artists, spectacular and disturbing.
