Francis Bacon: Late Paintings

February 23 - May 25,2020

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Francis Bacon: Late Paintings. Organized by the Centre Pompidou, where it debuted in September 2019, this is the first in-depth museum consideration of Bacon’s production in his final decades, and the first museum exhibition of the artist’s work to be seen in the U.S. since the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2009 retrospective in New York. The exhibition is on view in Houston from February 23 through May 25, 2020. “We are profoundly pleased to partner with the Centre Pompidou and their curator Didier Ottinger to bring to the United States this landmark survey of Francis Bacon’s late work,” said Gary Tinterow, Director, The Margaret Alkek Williams Chair, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “This will be Houston’s first exhibition of the artist, and by focusing on the achievements of his final decades, we can best understand the resolution he brought to many of his long-standing concerns and his enduring commitment to the power of painting.” Exhibition Overview Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was a leading figure in 20th-century British art: celebrated, scandalous, and profoundly influential. In 1971, he was at a turning point in his career as he prepared for a major retrospective mounted at the Grand Palais in Paris. The paintings that led up to this exhibition are among those featured in the Houston presentation, including Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror, 1968, and Triptych, 1970. The installation will also open with a series of self-portraits, introducing Bacon’s vivid presence at a time when he stated “[I have] no one else to paint.” Also on view will be portraits of his close contemporaries, including the poet Michel Leiris, who observed: “[Bacon’s paintings] help us, most powerfully, to feel the sheer fact of existence as it is sensed by a man without illusions.”

On View: February 23, 2020 | 10-5 pm

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - MFAH 1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX 77005
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