Friday, February 11, 2011

The Reconstruction




Exterior, 7 Reece Mews, London and Francis Bacon Studio (the photographs in the image show George Dyer at the top and Francis Bacon
below). Perry Ogden, 1998. Images above and text below from Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.



The Hugh Lane Gallery removed the contents of Francis Bacon's studio at 7 Reece Mews in August 1998.
This operation was conducted with the assistance of a team of archaeologists who mapped the space, and
tagged and noted the positions of the objects. The reconstructed studio features the original door, walls,
floors, ceiling and shelves. Over 7,000 items were found in the studio and these were catalogued on a
specially designed database before their replacement in the studio. The Francis Bacon Studio Database
is the first computerised archive of the entire contents of a world ranking artist's studio. Every item in the
studio has a database entry. Each entry consists of an image and a factual account of an object. The data-
base has entries on approximately 570 books and catalogues, 1,500 photographs, 100 slashed canvases,
1,300 leaves torn from books, 2,000 artist's materials and 70 drawings. Other categories include the artist's
correspondence, magazines, newspapers and vinyl records.




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