Hong Kong – Christie’s, in partnership with HomeArt, are delighted to announce 【Flesh and Soul: Bacon/Ghenie】, a joint exhibition of over 15 masterpieces by Francis Bacon and Adrian Ghenie, to be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 21 to 29 May 2022, as a special highlight during the week of Christie’s Spring Preview and Auctions. This will be an event remarkable for its many “firsts” – the first Francis Bacon exhibition in Hong Kong, the first Adrian Ghenie exhibition in Asia, and the world’s first joint exhibition for the two iconic artists. After Hong Kong, the collection will travel to additional locations in Asia.

Hailed as one of the most important painters of the 20th century, Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was a prolific artist who focused on portraiture that articulated violence, tension and turbulence, life’s glorious agony. His works are held in almost every major public collection around the world and are highly coveted by elite collectors, regularly achieving eight figures and more at international auctions. His “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” (1969) sold for US$142 million at Christie’s New York in 2014, setting the record for the world’s most valuable painting at the time.

Like Bacon a generation before, Adrian Ghenie (b. 1977) uses his art to address traumas of humanity, but with a preoccupation with mass sufferings and the forces of good and evil. His techniques of pouring, dripping, and knifing are unorthodox, creating canvases that are rough and jagged, conveying darkness and torment, often with a cinematic feel. Internationally acclaimed, Ghenie’s works are held in the collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, S.M.A.K., Ghent, the Long Museum, Shanghai, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.

NOTES TO EDITORS
Preview:
Location: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, No. 1 Harbour Road, Hong Kong
21 May – by appointment only
22 – 29 May  – open to public