London - To coincide with Tate Britain’s major Francis Bacon retrospective, James Hyman Gallery presents an exhibition of Francis Bacon and some of the most powerful figurative artists of our time to explore the impact of the greatest British painter of the twentieth century. James Hyman Gallery will also be presenting a series of rarely seen prints by Francis Bacon, from the 1970s and 1980s. On exhibition 5 September - 4 October 2008.

James Hyman says: “As this exhibition demonstrates, Bacon’s legacy was not stylistic so much as conceptual: an encouragement to take risks, an art of extremes, a heightened sense of mortality.”

As with Bacon, the other artists in this exhibition all combine an awareness of the vulnerability of the body with the suggestion of actions upon it. Hockney and Kitaj's early paintings, made at the beginning of the 1960s, make obvious Bacon's impact on young painters engaged in radical ways with the possibilities of figure painting, and this impact continues in the paintings and drawings by which Tony Bevan and Hughie O'Donoghue established their reputations.

The exhibition includes works on loans and for sale, and is the third in a series of British Figurative Painting, following on from: Auerbach, Bacon, Freud, Kossoff (2000) and From Life. Radical Figurative Painting from Sickert to Bevan (2003).   

James Hyman is an acknowledged expert and author on Francis Bacon.  His widely acclaimed book The Battle for Realism: Figurative Art in Britain During the Cold War (1945-60), is published by Yale University Press. 

JAMES HYMAN GALLERY specialises in Modern British Art and International Contemporary Art. The gallery works with a select number of Artists and Artists Estates. In recent years its exhibition programme has included painting, drawing, sculpture, prints, photography, installation and video.

The gallery focuses on art of the last fifty years. It has a particular emphasis on the relationship between abstraction and figuration, and between painting and photography. James Hyman Gallery has an extensive programme of exhibitions. These include solo shows as well as specially curated thematic group exhibitions.

James Hyman Gallery - 5 Savile Row - London W1S 3PD - Telephone 020 7494 3857 - info-at-jameshymangallery.com
www.jameshymangallery.com Private view 4 September 2008, 6-8pm