This new exhibition at the Ashmolean is the first ever to critically link the work of sculptor Henry Moore and painter Francis Bacon.  Though the two artists exhibited together several times in the past, they did not know each other well and have, surprisingly, never before been compared and contrasted in this way. This exhibition demonstrates that it makes perfect sense to do so.  Bacon and Moore were both creating figurative art at a time when most of their contemporaries were making abstract works, and they were both greatly inspired and influenced by Pablo Picasso.   First-hand experience of the effects of war also impacted hugely on both artists.

I came to this exhibition with scant knowledge of either artist’s work, and emerged from it feeling like I had been deep in conversation with them both.  The Ashmolean has put together an excellent collection of sculptures, paintings, sketches, texts, and quotations which assumes no prior knowledge but intelligently and respectfully presents Bacon and Moore’s work in the context of their influences, and critically explores the similarities and differences.

One striking link is the abstract influence: the architectural blocks of glowing colour and bold, square forms on which biomorphic figures twist.  Remove the human figure from some of Bacon’s paintings and what you are left with could almost be by Rothko.  I also found it very interesting to see how the figures communicated emotions such as wariness, aloofness, loneliness and guardedness through posture, even though they are profoundly distorted.

All of the works here speak with intense or violent voices.  The exhibition states that, following the World Wars, many artists struggled with depicting the human head, having seen what violence could be done to living beings.  This certainly applied to both Moore and Bacon, evidenced in distortion, concealment and animalisation of heads and faces. 

It seemed to me that both artists were trying to discover where in the body the person resides.  It would seem that their answer was not the head – the works in the exhibition have heads which are hidden, obscured, empty or miniscule.  Several of Moore’s Helmets seems to suggest that the head is protection for the person or for the body.  Nor was it the heart – many of the sculptures have a hollow space where the heart should be.  In a number of works by both artists it is hard to tell whether there is one figure or two, whether one person is supporting another or if one part of the body is taking the weight of the rest.  Perhaps we can conclude that humanity resides in the act of unifying – living in the whole of one body, or in two bodies linked. 

I wholeheartedly recommend this exhibition.  It is full of uncompromisingly beautiful, ugly, pure, twisted, direct and hidden things and is a wonderful way to get to know two remarkable men through their most intimate, public manifestations.