Caravaggio Bacon

Curated by Anna Coliva and by Michael Peppiatt, the exhibition pays tribute to Caravaggio’s work on the 400th anniversary of his death. It combines Caravaggio’s masterpieces with paintings by Francis Bacon, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. The latter and the former are both extreme characters, so-called “cursed” artists, who made an art form out of their torment. Bacon shares no similarities with Caravaggio and was not inspired by him; yet, if there is a modern artist who can be compared to Caravaggio, it is Bacon himself. The brush of both painters allows us to contemplate the intimate and at times shocking truths that reflect each artists’ search for the human soul.