Some two years ago during a trip to Milan we were faced with another very wet day. It seems we only go to Milan in the monsoon season!! Fed up with the queues for The Last Supper we ventured into the Museo D’Arte Contemporanea where we happened upon a Francis Bacon exhibition.
Billed as being the largest exhibition of his work for many years there were some 100 paintings on show and Milan was the starting point for this touring show.
Now I have never been a Bacon fan and I reluctantly agreed with Gael that we should at least see it and so we did.
What I was not prepared for was the size of individual paintings and the absolutely stunning colours. The content can sometimes be challenging however by the time we had seen all the work [this took some 2 hrs] we left as new Bacon converts.
As it is with art you really cannot appreciate it unless you can get up close and really explore the technique and the make up of the colours up close.
Well I do not mind saying that the shear number of works on show and the size of works just dazzled us. Due to very little security which I think was due in part to Bacon’s demand that all his pieces are framed and glazed and that the exhibition was devoid of other people, we were able to do the close up thing.
For those who may still be in doubt over their feelings towards his art I suggest that you postpone your decision until you have bathed in a large show of his work as we did – you may be surprised about how you feel thereafter.
I believe that we would not have visited the show had it been in England and we were lucky to be driven indoors by the rain of Milan and straight into the fan club of Francis Bacon.
Despite many trips to Milan we have yet to see The Last Supper - though we did come to understand the sheer brilliance of one of our own so to speak!
