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Confused exhibition at the ICA to mark 60 years since they hosted Francis Bacon’s first solo show.

This show was a great idea and I can imagine the excitement of the meeting that thought of it. Then they went to the archives to put it together and found they only had an invite and a programme from it. Instead of then opting not to do it, someone then wondered what they could tie it to and decided that as there had been the ambiguous picture “Two figures in the grass” in the show that they’d link it to the fight to legalise homosexuality.

Basically the Bacon bits were not much and padded out by catalogues of other shows. The material on the lead up to the Sexual Offences Act 1967 and the partial decriminalization of homosexuality was fascinating. There were law cases and books which I’d not come across. It was laid out well and told an interesting story. Hopefully in two years’ time when it’s the 50th anniversary someone will pit on a show taking an intense look at this.

However I’m not sure the two bits of the exhibition really tied together properly particularly in such a small space. 

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