PROFILES

He has set up a Francis Bacon Foundation in Monaco to foster knowledge of the artistic genius's life, work and creative process. Its founder talks of its activities and his passion for art.

You will soon be presenting a new hanging. What will you show?
I recently acquired an exceptional collection originating from the Paris live-in studio, at 14 Rue de Birague in the Marais, where Bacon lived from 1975 to 1987. We should remember it was in France that the British artist was undoubtedly best received and most celebrated. This Paris collection consists of 70-plus items including letters, work documents, a selection of photos and also easels, a fragment of a painting and other objects. Part of it will be shown in our upcoming hanging scheduled for this September, when we will also be displaying numerous items from our collection that have never previously been exhibited.

And the collection has grown considerably in its four years.
Yes indeed, since the Foundation's inauguration in 2014 we've been continuously adding to our collection and archives. Our photography collection has grown considerably to now comprise more than 600 photos of the artist, taken by 50-plus renowned photographers such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, David Bailey, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peter Beard, Peter Stark, John Deakin and many others. We've also acquired a large number of letters that Bacon sent to lovers, friends, writers and members of his family; these are a vital source of information for better understanding the man and the painter.

So you explore more than six decades of creation?
The core of the MB Art Collection is indeed a selection of Bacon paintings dating from the late 1920s to the late 1980s. I was lucky enough to acquire his 1929 Watercolour, the first work listed in the artist's catalogue raisonné; then recently I bought his last painting of Isabel Rawsthorne, a diptych from 1983. She was the muse of Derain, Giacometti, Picasso and of course Bacon himself, who portrayed her in 18 of his paintings; she was also one of his closest friends. My painting shows her when she had just turned 70, but Bacon softened her features and so made her look younger. As Isabel had just lost the sight of one eye following surgery, he touchingly demonstrates great empathy through the way he paints his friend's features. Bacon painted almost exclusively people he knew well or his lovers, people whose physiognomy and personality were familiar to him. His portraits have a truly striking presence.

As a collector, what do you look for in an artist?
I believe art in all its forms should make you thrill, react and unleash all sorts of emotions. From the moment I first saw Bacon's work at the Tate Gallery in London, in the 1990s, it has never ceased to fascinate me. He was a man who made no concessions, in his life or his work. In a way I discovered art history through Bacon's very numerous sources of influence, which included so many great masters such as Michelangelo, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Goya, Rodin, Picasso… I also collect paintings by artists who inspired Bacon, such as Walter Sickert, or frequented him, such as Vladimir Veličković, Frank Auerbach and Denis Wirth-Miller. And I've added artists inspired by Bacon's work, among them Robert Longo, Maggi Hambling and Clare Shenstone.

Now we see Jane Birkin too on the Foundation's website
Yes, we've just launched our new website, totally overhauled in both design and content. Among other things you can now watch a whole series of video interviews of artists, photographers and Francis Bacon's friends, produced and filmed by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation; they offer unique insights into the British painter. Jane Birkin visited the Foundation in 2016 and was then good enough to agree to a video interview in which she talks about her first meeting with Bacon in Paris and Gainsbourg's passion for the painter's work. Another interview is with Bacon's doctor, Paul Brass, who gives us an intimate picture of Francis Bacon the man and the artist.

Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation
Visites guidées les mardis et le premier samedi du mois.
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www.mbartfoundation.com