To mark the 30 years since Francis Bacon’s death on 28th April 1992, this exhibition BACON ON CAMERA presents two films by Martha Parsey, ‘Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon’ and ‘Francis Bacon in Paris’.
Both films have previously been screened in major Bacon exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Haus der Kunst, Munich, the Hayward Gallery, London and at Ordovas Gallery, New York.
The exhibition runs from March 29th- May 21st 2022 and kicks off with an online exhibition with further screenings, seminars and artist’s talks to follow at MPHQ through the duration of the exhibition.

Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon

Meeting Francis Bacon in London’s Soho of the 1960s, Henrietta Moraes (1931-1999) became a close friend of Bacon’s and his most frequently painted female subject. In interview at Bacon’s exhibition of small portraits at the Marlborough Gallery, London, Henrietta describes her relationship to Francis Bacon, intercut with Francis Bacon in interview with David Sylvester; a final dialogue between model and artist.


‘Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon’ © Martha Parsey.

Francis Bacon in Paris

Stills from the film ‘Francis Bacon in Paris’. 19 mins. French / English with English subtitles.

David Sylvester, close friend and interviewer of Francis Bacon, hangs the Francis Bacon retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1996, four years after the artist’s death. Accompanying David Sylvester through the hanging of the show, Francis Bacon talks us through the works in his own words, from private conversations and previously unpublished interviews with David Sylvester from the 1970s, forming a final posthumous dialogue between artist and critic. An exhibition that was a testimony both to their lasting friendship and to Bacon’s supremacy as a painter, is staged in Paris, where Francis Bacon first decided to paint and David Sylvester first started writing. This film was made by Martha Parsey with the generous support and in collaboration with David Sylvester.

‘Francis Bacon in Paris’. 1996. Directed by Martha Parsey

About Martha Parsey

Martha Parsey studied Fine Art and Film at Central St Martins College of Art, the University of the Arts London, the University of the Arts Berlin and the German Film and Television Academy. Her films on Francis Bacon, screened at the ICA and Hayward Gallery, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Haus der Kunst, Munich and at Ordovas Gallery, New York, formed a lasting friendship and collaboration with the art critic and interviewer David Sylvester. Shortlisted for the Lexmark European Art Prize and the Sovereign European Art Prize, her paintings have been exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and the US, with her work in a number of prestigous collections including the Ovitz Family Collection, the Zabludowicz Collection and the Musée National d’art Moderne, Paris.

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