A large-scale painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and artistic rival Lucian Freud is part of Tate Britain's landmark exhibition, All Too Human, which begins in February 2018. The work, not exhibited for over half a century, is one of 100 pieces by some of the most celebrated modern British artists. With a focus on Freud and Bacon, the exhibition reveals how their art captures personal and immediate experiences and events. Featuring major works by Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer, Frank Auerbach, Paula Rego and many others, this exhibition makes poignant connections across generations of artists and tells the story of figurative painting in the 20th century.
All Too Human explores how artists in Britain have stretched the possibilities of paint in order to capture life around them. The exhibition spans a century of art making, from the early twentieth century through to contemporary developments. London forms the backdrop, where most of the artists lived, studied and exhibited. Some of them only ever painted from life, whether focusing on regular sitters, including relatives, friends and lovers, or the everyday landscapes they inhabited. Others selected and combined reference images from a variety of sources to create imagined scenes and suggest possible narratives. Whatever their approach, these artists moved beyond naturalistic representation, capturing the ways in which they are affected by their subjects. Many of the artists in the exhibition have spoken of painting as an activity that cannot be properly expressed in words, existing beyond the limits of verbal language. Embracing the visual and tactile qualities of paint, these artists set out to explore what it is that makes us human.
All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life. Tate Modern, until 27 August 2018.
