Inspiring Artists: Bacon in Moscow
James BirchIn 1988, art curator James Birch, travelled to Moscow to mount the ground-breaking Francis Bacon exhibition. How was Bacon perceived at the time & how did this exhibition change society?
Learn about this Garden Talk
James Birch shares his personal memories of meeting Francis Bacon and then curating a ground-breaking exhibition of Bacon's work in Moscow during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Buy James' book 'Bacon in Moscow' here.
Talk outline
35 minutes
Art & Society
About the Fellow
James Birch is a British art curator and author.
Art & Society Collection
Art is often used as a medium to convey messages and meaning, not just to entertain & delight. Artists play an important role in reflecting and commentating on the societies in which they live. But how does influence society?Irish-born painter Francis Bacon was one of the most important artists of the 20th century, his raw, unsettling imagery emerging from some of the most traumatic events of the modern age, including two world wars. Who was he, as an artist and as a man?
Humans have always speculated about what a perfect world might look like, whether as a reward in the afterlife, part of an origin story like the Garden of Eden, or a real place on Earth. How do we see these ideas play out in the art we create?
In 1988, art curator James Birch, travelled to Moscow to mount the ground-breaking Francis Bacon exhibition. How was Bacon perceived at the time & how did this exhibition change society?
The colour white has been associated with purity for millennia in religious iconography, architecture and art. But has it come to represent something darker too?
