Francis Bacon’s French Literary Ties Explored at Centre Pompidou

The Centre Pompidou presents 'Bacon en toutes lettres' (11 Sep 2019–20 Jan 2020), an exhibition examining Francis Bacon’s dialogue with literature and philosophy. Curated by Didier Ottinger, the show highlights influences from Aeschylus, T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Leiris, and Georges Bataille, while also showcasing writers inspired by Bacon: Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Dupin, Claude Simon, Hervé Guibert, Philippe Sollers, Milan Kundera, Philippe Muray, and Jonathan Littell. An anthology of their texts accompanies the exhibition. Bacon’s 1971 retrospective at the Grand Palais marked a turning point in his work, according to Ottinger. Bacon declared France his favorite country to Michel Archimbaud shortly before his death in 1992. The exhibition requires advance ticket reservations. A 2013 triptych sold for €105.9 million at Christie’s, making Bacon the most expensive modern painter at the time. Critic Catherine Millet notes that historian Catherine Howe’s catalogue essay omits Kundera despite his inclusion in the anthology—Kundera’s text opens with a rape fantasy set in 1972 Prague.