Bacon, En Toutes Lettres - Catalogue De L'Exposition

The Centre Pompidou continues its re-examination of key 20th century works by devoting a major exhibition to Francis Bacon. The last major French exhibition of this artist's work was held in 1996 at the Centre Pompidou. More than twenty years later, Bacon: Books and Painting presents paintings dating from 1971, the year of the retrospective event at the national galleries of the Grand Palais, to his final works in 1992. The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou focuses on works produced by Bacon in the last two decades of his career. It consists of sixty paintings (including 12 triptychs, in addition to a series of portraits and self-portraits) from major private and public collections. From 1971 to 1992 (the year of the artist's death), his painting style was marked by its simplification and intensification. His colours acquired new depth, drawn from a unique chromatic register of yellow, pink and saturated orange. The catalogue deals especially with the strong bond between Bacon's works and literature. Furthermore, the triptychs are presented in the form of leaflets, in order to see their visual impact and their kinship from an unexpected literary angle.