Artlyst Podcast: Amanda Geitner Discusses Francis Bacon And Lisa Sainsbury

Francis Bacon

The Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts presents ‘Francis Bacon and the Masters’, bringing together over twenty-five major works by Bacon and juxtaposing them with old and modern masters, including Velázquez, Rembrandt, Titian, Michelangelo, Rodin, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Matisse. The exhibition forms the culmination of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The previous exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum showed the artist’s work from UK collections alongside objects from The Hermitage that influenced the artist.

Artlyst spoke to Amanda Geitner – Chief Curator of the Sainsbury Centre – who imparted a story to me regarding Bacon and Lisa Sainsbury. Bacon painted up to eight portraits of Lisa, but was notorious for destroying anything that he didn’t like, three survived the artist’s notoriously critical eye, and are among the last portraits that Bacon did in his studio with a sitter, and not from photographs taken by his friend John Deakin, after Bacon expressed a concern that sitters perceived his portraiture as an ‘injury’.

Lisa Sainsbury remembered vividly her experience of sitting for Bacon, and Amanda Geitner told Artlyst of the intimate friendship that grew between Lady Sainsbury and the acclaimed British painter, who Lisa ‘loved’ until the end of her life.

Audio: Amanda Geitner with Paul Black. Photos: P A Black © Artlyst 2015 all rights reserved

Francis Bacon And The Masters – Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts – until 26 July 2015

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