Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty celebrates the centenary of Francis Bacon's birth in 63, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin. This exhibition comprising paintings, drawings, photographs, unfinished works and slashed canvases will offer the viewer an astonishing new look at Francis Bacon, the great figurative painter of the 20th century. It will provide an opportunity to reappraise his oeuvre through the selected paintings, several of which haven’t been on public exhibition for many years. The mastery of Francis Bacon is revealed through these works and will be fully supported by an extensive and previously unseen selection of items from Bacon’s Studio.

Following on the donation of the Studio to the Hugh Lane by John Edwards in 1998, the 7,000 plus items retrieved from the studio were archived by The Hugh Lane. Francis Bacon’s Studio has been on permanent exhibition at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane since 2001. It is acknowledged as one of the most pioneering and successful realisations of preserving and displaying an artist’s studio and contents. The database is unprecedented, documenting every item retrieved, thus providing fascinating insights into Bacon’s working processes.

The exhibition is co-curated by Barbara Dawson and Martin Harrison. It will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue that will present important new research on the artist.

Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty is one of the major European cultural events of 2009. The exhibition will tour to Compton Verney, Warwickshire, England, in 2010.

Events at a glance

Lecture Series:
This vibrant lecture series will illuminate this extraordinary exhibition and will give the contributors and the public the opportunity to debate and explore issues raised by the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue.

Sunday 1st November 2009
Time: 1.30pm
Public Lecture: Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty
Lecturer: Director and Co-Curator, Barbara Dawson


Sunday 15th November 2009
Time: 1.30pm
Public Lecture: A Game of Chance: The Media and Techniques of Francis Bacon
Lecturer: Head of Conservation, Joanna Shepard

Sunday 22nd November 2009
Time: 1.30pm
Public Lecture: Latent Images
Lecturer: Bacon Scholar and Co-Curator, Martin Harrison

Sunday 29th November 2009
Time: 1.30pm
Public Lecture: "I don't find it at all violent myself", Bacon's Material Practice and the Human Body.
Lecturer: Marcel Finke M.A. (University of Tuebingen, Germany)

Sunday 6th December 2009
Time: 1.30pm
Public Lecture: "The Street... the Only Valid Field of Experience". Francis Bacon and the Photography of John Deakin.
Lecturer: Head of Collections, Jessica O'Donnell.

*Please note there will be no public tours on the Sundays during this lecture series.

For More Information:
http://www.hughlane.ie