In the Mirror of Photography, Francis Bacon's photographic templates
Lecture by Katharina Günther

British painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is famous for his screaming popes, distorted portraits, and idiosyncratic depiction of the human figure. Thirty years after his death, his working methods and the origins of his iconography have been little explored. New analyses, based on the contents of his last studio at 7 Reece Mews in London-a colorful, ankle-deep mess of battered books, paint-smeared photographs, and newspaper fragments-open surprising perspectives on the genesis of his works: to a previously unknown extent, Bacon drew on the photographic material he collected in his studios for his pictorial program. Turning Figure, 1963 in the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen and its pre-images, is an example of 369 paintings by Bacon that could be linked to one or more photographic references. In this lecture, it serves as a starting point for describing and interpreting patterns and methods in artistic preparatory work and in the adoption of photographic material, but also for locating the limits of Bacon's interest in the photographic template as well as its usefulness for his work.

Dr. Katharina Günther is an expert on modern and contemporary art and photography with a focus on figurative British postwar painting. She studied art history at the University of Cologne and completed her PhD there in 2019 with a thesis on Francis Bacon's iconographic templates (Boston/Berlin 2022). Since 2009, she has worked as a researcher for The Estate of Francis Bacon, the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, and the John Deakin Archive in Dublin and London, including at Tate Britain and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Most recently, she built the official Bacon Estates website as project manager. Since 2020, she has been Scientific Director of the Marbach Weimar Wolfenbüttel Research Network at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

The event is part of a series in cooperation with the Art History Department at the University of Siegen and the Art History Institute at the University of Cologne.