In a tense juxtaposition, the large-scale exhibition presents the two most significant figurative painters of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon.
Under the impression of Picasso, Bacon resolved to become a painter. Throughout his life he would wrestle with this great father figure – and ultimately strive to surpass him. For the second half of the 20th century, Bacon wanted to be what Picasso was for the first: a chronicler of human existence in all its fragmentation. Both century artists placed human existence at the centre of their pictorial worlds. Both were preoccupied with the human body – torn apart, reassembled and reinvented with radical force. In their distorted depictions they show pain, desire and vulnerability, and hold up a merciless mirror to the modern soul.