April 5 – July 20, 2014
Art Gallery of Ontario
In Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty, the Art Gallery of Ontario brings together two giants of 20th-century British art in a major exhibition that features more than 130 artworks, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and archival materials.
Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty draws on the artists’ experiences during times of conflict and violence, including the London Blitz of the Second World War, to examine how confinement and angst fostered their extraordinary creativity and unique visions. It also demonstrates how the two artists reflected differently upon torment.
Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait II (after the Life Mask of William Blake), 1953, Tate © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights Reserved, DACS/SODRAC (2014)
Henry Moore,Reclining Figure, 1951, plaster cast. L: 228.5 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Courtesy Craig Boyko, AGO © The Henry Moore Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS/SODRAC (2013)
Curated for the AGO by Dan Adler, associate professor of art history at York University, Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty is the first Canadian exhibition of Bacon’s work and includes rarely seen Moore pieces, from both the AGO collection and elsewhere. Moore’s works are a cornerstone of the AGO collection, and pairing them with those by Francis Bacon sets them in a new light. The exhibition also presents more than 30 archival photographs by acclaimed German-born British photographer Bill Brandt. Loans for the exhibition have also been secured from several institutions, including MoMA, Tate Britain and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
The exhibition was originally curated by Richard Calvocoressi CBE, Director of the Henry Moore Foundation and Martin Harrison, editor of the catalogue raisonné on Francis Bacon.
*Exhibition information: April 5 – July 20, 2014, Art Gallery of Ontario at 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto. Gallery Hours: Tue 10 – 5:30, Wed 10 – 8:30, Thu – Sun 10 – 5:30 p.m.