It was over twenty years since the last major exhibition on Francis Bacon, who loved France with a passion, to be held in France ‒ at the Centre Pompidou in 1996. ‘Francis Bacon: Books and Painting’ assembled paintings from 1971, the year of the legendary Grand Palais retrospective, to the artist’s last pictures, painted in 1992. This innovative exploration of the influence of literature on Bacon’s painting was curated by Didier Ottinger.
The exhibition consisted of sixty paintings (including twelve triptychs and a series of portraits and self-portraits) from major private and public collections and focused on artworks produced in the last two decades of Bacon’s career. Its itinerary consisted of six sections organised around works of literature, and included readings of excerpts of texts from Francis Bacon’s library.
For Bacon, 1971 was a watershed year. While the exhibition at the Grand Palais consecrated his international reputation, the tragic death of his lover, George Dyer, two days before the private view triggered a period of guilt, symbolically represented by the mythological figures of the Erinyes (or Furies) which proliferated in his painting. The three ‘Black Triptychs’ In Memory of George Dyer, dating from 1971, Triptych‒August 1972 and Triptych May‒June 1973, all of which featured in this exhibition, commemorate his friend’s death.
From 1971 to 1992 (the year he died), his painting style became increasingly simplified and intense. His colours acquired new depth and he used a unique chromatic register of yellow, pink and bright orange.
