Architecture and Design in the Bacon Era
1-22 October 2008
Francis Bacon's life, from 1909 - 1992, covered an exceptional period of transformation in architecture and art. He worked at a time when continental modernism, in art, architecture and design, was reinvented in a British context. Indeed, before beginning a career in painting, Bacon worked as an interior designer; producing tubular steel furniture and other products he would later dismiss as derivative of Le Corbusier. Bacon's work offered a reaction to the Modernist project, and he shared with it an examination of city life, texture, beauty and ugliness.
On the eve of Bacon's centenary and with his major retrospective in full swing, The Architecture Foundation, in collaboration with Tate Britain, presents two discussions on the changes to the built environment and the challenges to Modernity than ran parallel to the artist's work and lifetime.
Texture
Zaha Hadid, Tony Fretton, Mark Cousins, Patrick Hodgkinson1 October 2008
Zaha Hadid, Tony Fretton, Mark Cousins and Patrick Hodgkinson
Chaired by Joe Kerr, Royal College of Art
Back to the City
Joseph Rykwert, Ken Livingstone, Nigel Coates, Denise Scott Brown22 October 2008
Joseph Rykwert, Ken Livingstone, Nigel Coates and Denise Scott Brown
Chaired by Joe Kerr, Royal College of Art
