The Niemeyer Centre presents the most complete exhibition made so far with the drawings of Francis Bacon

  • Over 70 pencil, pastel and collage drawings make up the exhibition “Fran©is Ba© La ©uestión del dibujo”, that opens on Friday November 10, at 6 p.m.
  • The works presented are part of “The Francis Bacon Collection of the Drawings Donated to Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino” and will be showcased until April 8, 2018.
  • The show is organised according to six thematic blocks: Figures, popes, heads, crucifixions, self-portraits, studies, portraits and tributes.
  • Fundación Banco Sabadell is the main sponsor of this exhibition that is also supported by the University of Oviedo and Círculo de Bellas Artes as collaborators.

Avilés, October 31, 2017. The next exhibition hosted at the Centro Niemeyer’s dome will be on the Irish painter Francis Bacon, from Friday November 10 to Sunday April 8, 2018. The show will present 73 works belonging to “The Francis Bacon Collection of the Drawings Donated to Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino”, 15 of them never shown before in Spain. These works will make up the “most complete exhibition organised so far” with the drawings of the Irish creator, according to Cristiano Lovatelli, owner of the collection and Bacon’s close friend.

“Fran©is Ba©on. La ©uestión del dibujo” (Francis Bacon. The question of drawing) is the title of this new exhibition that faces the old myth that Bacon did not draw: This was stated by the author himself on several occasions. However, since his death in Madrid in 1992 solid evidence has emerged showing not only that Bacon did draw, but also that he was a prolific author in this technique. Furthermore, his drawings “show that they are not mere preliminary works or amusements: quite on the contrary, in these pieces one can see the intention and will for them to have a meaning by themselves”, said Fernando Castro, curator of the exhibition together with Umberto Guerini.

The 73 works presented are part of the collection The Francis Bacon Collection of the Drawings Donated to Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino, a collection made up by around 800 drawings signed and dated by the painter and donated between 1977 and 1992 to his Italian close friend Cristiano Lovatelli. 15 out of these 73 works are showcased for the first time in Spain at Niemeyer Centre and two of them, “Pope” and “Crucifixion”, both from 1992, will stand out due to their size, two metres times two metres, what confirms that Bacon’s drawings were made with an artistic purpose, and not only as mere sketches.

The exhibition is organised around six thematic blocks made up by figures, popes, heads, crucifixions, self-portraits and, last, studies, portraits and tributes. The exhibition has been divided into these six areas as they match perfectly the topics that obsessed Bacon all along his artistic career: From analysing individuals by means of portrait to his obsession with a Velazquez’s Pope Innocent X, based on which he made 40 paintings and many more drawings. The show will also include several audiovisuals, a study and bibliography area and material on Bacon.

Castro states that with this exhibition “we want to provide an opportunity to see the mystery and cast some light on one of the most discussed issues regarding one of the most relevant artists of the 20th century” and, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Niemeyer Centre, Vicente Domínguez, agrees with this statement and confirms that, with this exhibition “The Niemeyer Centre strengthens its position at international level as a cultural centre of reference that is able of attracting and showing the work of some of the most relevant artists in all fields of creation, from the English theatre company Cheek by Jowl to the photographs of the Pulitzer prize winner, to give just two recent examples”.

“Fran©is Ba©on. La ©uestión del dibujo” is supported by Banco Sabadell as main sponsor and two other sponsoring entities: The University of Oviedo and Círculo de Bellas Artes.