Francis Bacon, Berlin, vers 1929-1930 par Helmar Lerski © Estate Helmar Lerski, Museum Folkwang, Essen, 2024
Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, Monaco/MB Art Collection
Carte de visite de Francis Bacon en tant que designer de mobilier au début des années 1930
Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, Monaco/MB Art Collection
© droits réservés © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved/Adagp, Paris, 2024
9 June 2024 • 5 January 2025
Preview Sunday 9 June at 11am
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Co-curators : Elsa Boustany, Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation et Fabienne Grasser-Fulchéri, directrice de l'eac.
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Exhibition co-produced with the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, Monaco
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media's partnership
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Artists : Francis Bacon, Sonia Delaunay, Roy De Maistre, Eileen Gray, Pierre Jeanneret, Fernand Léger, Le Corbusier, André Lurçat, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, Pablo Picasso, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the construction of the building which houses the Albers-Honegger Donation. For this anniversary year, eac is giving design pride of place with an exhibition devoted to a little-known aspect of Francis Bacon's practice, namely the furniture he created in the early 1930s, its influences and the traces this period left throughout his career.
Bacon said that he was greatly influenced by French design. He also stated that post-Cubism, as well as the Bauhaus, had left their mark on him and had been major sources of inspiration. It was at the same time, in 1930, that the Concrete Art group was established, with principles that can be applied to other fields coming into direct contact with reality and society, such as typography, architecture and design.
At the same time, an article published in the British art magazine The Studio entitled ‘The v 1930 Look in British Decoration’ singled out Francis Bacon's work, praising the surprisingly avant-garde nature of his interior design. His furniture was mainly influenced by the work of contemporary designers such as Pierre Chareau, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier, André Lurçat, Robert Mallet-Stevens and also Charlotte Perriand.
The exhibition features a significant collection of Francis Bacon's works from this period, including paintings, furniture, rugs and archive documents.
As well as displaying design objects, the exhibition includes paintings by artists such as Roy De Maistre, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso so as to provide a fuller picture of the context of this period and the various influences on Bacon.
A large part of the exhibition is devoted to paintings from Fernand Léger's “Purist” period, which are directly echoed in the geometric designs of Francis Bacon's rugs.
The works by Francis Bacon on display come from the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, which houses Majid Boustany's private collection (MB Art Collection). This collection holds the greatest number of pieces of furniture and rugs dating from this period.