Focus on Francis Bacon at the Magnani-Rocca

At the Magnani-Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma) an exhibition (or rather: a focus) celebrates the myth of Francis Bacon (Dublin, 1909 - Madrid, 1992). Francis Bacon. Two Americans brings the 1954 painting Two Americans to the halls of the Villa di Mamiano: the work, which belongs to the Barilla Collection of Modern Art, was purchased by Pietro Barilla in 1968 from the Mario Tazzoli Gallery in Turin and joined a collection made up of works by great contemporary artists such as Max Ernst, James Ensor, Henry Moore, Chaim Soutine, Nicholas de Staël, as well as Italians Giorgio De Chirico, Umberto Boccioni, Marino Marini, Alberto Savinio, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana and many others.

Bacon executed his Two Americans most likely in Ostia during his stay in Italy in the fall of 1954. In the painting, Bacon portrays two American travelers he had seen looking out of the window of his hotel in Rome. They are two figures in dark blue suits, probably two businessmen, inserted within a rectangle traced with a faint white marker that marks the space of the composition: a sort of frame inserted to capture the viewer’s attention and at the same time to prevent a story from distracting the viewer’s concentration from the two characters. Bacon’s figures in fact are isolated, disintegrating figures (Bacon used to dissolve his characters with brush strokes and spatulas or by hurling colors directly onto the canvas). Declared the artist himself, “in those moments I am ready for anything: I wipe away with a rag or take my brush and rub away what I have just painted, I run turpentine over it, I paint something else over it ... anything to break the rational organization of the image, as long as it grows spontaneously, that is, according to its own structure and not the one I impose on it. [...] I want to deform things beyond the appearance, but at the same time I want the deformation to register the appearance.”

The exhibition, running from Sept. 9 to Dec. 10, 2017, is open during the Foundation’s opening hours: Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (closed Monday, ticket office closes one hour before closing time). On Saturdays at 4 p.m. and Sundays and holidays at 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. there are tours of the exhibitions with specialized guides. The exhibition is entered with the ticket also valid for the permanent collection and the Advertising exhibition. 10 euros full price, 5 euros reduced for schools. From Sept. 30 to Oct. 8, the ticket entitles the visitor to a discount on admission to Mercanteinfiera at Fiere di Parma. Information and reservations: 0521 848327, www.magnanirocca.it. Exhibition produced with the collaboration of XL Catlin and AON s.p.a.

Image: Francis Bacon, Two Americans (1954; Barilla Collection). Ph. Credit Adriana Ferrari

Focus on Francis Bacon at the Magnani-Rocca

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