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Three Studies for Portrait of Lucian Freud [middle panel], 1965
PAINTING FRANCIS BACON — PORTRAITS AND HEADS Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 4 Sep .0000
Screams, scowls, stares and the occasional smile are spread across the walls of the Gallery of Modern Art in powerful grimace. Francis Bacon renders images of himself, friends and lovers with unremitting power and commitment to the self. While Warhol, whose stylised self-image, hung here in varying cuts of fragile vanity a few months ago, Bacon flatters no- one, especially not himself. Within the distorting smears of paint which push features into visceral mess, there is an honesty that connects all and disarms.
‘Head Vl’, inspired by Velazquez’ ‘Pope Innocent X’, 1650, launches the show. The screaming face disappears above teeth baring horror and the cage that frames the figure could be a chamber or electrical chair - whatever the form, the legacy of war is not far from the 1949 painting's subject.
Moving into the 505, a collection of studies for portraits/figures continues the use of strong downward streaks. Dark colours - blues, greys, greens — pull over the men in suits. Outer order and control in the lines of a jacket, shirt and tie are poignantly and disturbingly usurped by a sense of inner chaos. The series of ‘Man in Blue’ from 1954 show a serious looking man leaning on a dark bar, while the faint outlines of a frame hover somewhere over and behind him. He struggles with notions of oppression and enclosure in works from this period.
In the latter half of the 505 Bacon had a turbulent relationship with a man called Peter Lacy, but the paintings from this time are the only ones to show any sense of peace. A naked figure lies on a big, blue, extended lazy- boy on a background of white in ‘Sleeping Figure’, 1959. His features and body are rounded and the hues are of pinks and soft blues with the odd line of yellow. Somehow there is something child-like and animal-like in the painting — and while the pink flesh looks raw and exposed, it is treated with tenderness.
Bacon‘s later portraits from the 605 become increasingly abstract, though there are always signifiers in the shape of an eye or edge of a nose that root the image in a likeness. Cubist tricks of showing multiple perspectives and building sculptural facets are increasingly employed and Bacon explores the religious form of the triptych. Divided selves face each other in confrontation and challenge. Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Isabel Rawthorne and Bacon’s other significant love, George Dyer, are all painted and painted and painted with sweeps, strokes and smears of the brush. Raw and violent, there is some of the most gentle, subtle painting you will ever see here. That his talent for putting oil on canvas was essential and immense is pleasure enough to behold. Its tenacity and dedication to expressing the complexities of the subject it describes are inspiring and emboldening. (Ruth Hedges)
96 THE LIST '23 Jllll /' Jul 2005)
INSTALlAllON SCUl PTURE? RICHARD HUGHES The Modern Institute. Glasgow, until Fri 15 Jul 0000
It's a li‘-cksy show. this. lltere are two games afoot. In the first. Richard Hughes pair‘stakingly recreates an :nsrgnrfacant object. A plastic bottle of piss. flung. we are told. tronr a car window. by a driver :n too much of a hurry to pull over to relreve l"'i‘f‘,05’. s immaculately cast .n res=n. right down to the droplets of condensation that head its surface. This straIc-gy is de'~.eloped further in ‘Smouldering Edge'. Hughes has panted the ‘.--.'alls. a coat of white on a coat of brightest orange. then picked at tl‘e edges. so that damp. dismal curls of paint are lent a little Day-Glo glamour.
The second gairte deals in traris‘.‘orrriatioris too. A puffa jacket is loosely bundled and “angs f"()'l‘ a me of hooks, At first glance. there's not much to it: it's jllSl another ;uv‘k sculpture. but approach agani fron‘ the right angle and the jacket is a hand, and the lll‘O c‘ books a cigarette. its flair‘e a peeled 'Smouldering Edge' lpiCturedi. Across the rocrr‘. there‘s a jun‘b'e of iegs l'l i<)l‘§) j()l‘-llf§ and Blle socks. This time. the legs area hand n‘awtg a peace sign, or licking the Vs.
Tt‘e goal of both gan‘es is the san‘e. In lavishing such attention on insignrl1cant n‘on‘ents. or {lf;8(}l7‘l)ll'ig .l‘iSigl‘illtIétl‘l objects into monuments to yet more .rtsignifrcant n‘o'rients Hugl‘es seeks to deny the very idea of irisignifrcance. asking
z took loi‘g ar‘d hard at that ‘.'."'i;ch we might otherwise ignore. IJack Mottran‘i
Anthony Solmig
l)l (Elli l. Sl lO‘r’.’ HISCOX MFA DEGREE SHOW 2005 Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 26 Jun 0000
this year's Glasgow School of Art lvllA is attached to. stabbed into and projected onto walls and spi‘a‘wls over the floors of Tramway. Twenty four international artists are sfiowuig their work. and this is the best Glasgow MFA group show for a long time.
Among this ‘.‘.'(}l|»pzi(:(>(f show. there are some exceptional pieces of work. Paul Desborough's painting sculpture 'Wr‘ist Action' rises up from a trestle table and licks at the wall with wit and confidence. Big isn't necessarily beautiful so you could try to ignore some of the straining showstoppers. That said. Jonathan Scott's sculpture and wall painting are pretty big. but he literally hangs anti-forin hoinhast from the highest post. Jennifer DOuglas' well composed large draWings 'Bad Beat’ and "Big Slick' also demand attention and deserve it. Cecile Amulay's neo sublime installation 'Beat Hotel. Paris. 1962'. is sparse and effective. In sharp contrast to this. Duncan Margurss' filin 'Rogganwolf' weds Ro'nanticisin to honor; a series of flourishes in film records the beiewelled scene of a massacre.
In trying to be ‘not that. and not t/rat'. some of the photographs shown flounder Ill pointless signification. Ln'erything from AltiGHCE‘t looks 'American'. And euerything from Iceland looks 'lcelandrc'. (Alexander Kennedy)