Head with Raised Arm (1955) was last exhibited in 1962 at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna in Turin. It was bought by the current (unnamed) owner the following year, and has not been on public view since.
Its location was listed as ‘unknown’ in the most recent version of Bacon’s catalogue raisonné published last year by Martin Harrison, and it will now be available to view at several previews ahead of its sale on October 6 at Christie’s post-war and contemporary art evening auction.
The artwork belongs to a group of nine surviving paintings depicting the then incumbent, Pope Pius XII, and four of these are in museum collections.
"Fundamental tension"
Francis Outred, Christie’s chairman and head of post-war and contemporary art in Europe, Middle East, Russia and India, said: “Head with Raised Arm poses the question that would haunt Bacon for the duration of his career: how to paint the human figure in the age of photography. The camera’s ability to cast fiction as truth resonated with the fundamental tension that Bacon identified in religious and political figureheads: a conflict between public image and innate animal instinct.”
Outred said the artwork was illustrated in the first catalogue raisonné created by Ronald Alley with Bacon in 1964.
The painting will be on view between September 8-12 in New York and September 18-21 in Hong Kong, followed by a preview in London at Christie’s King Street from September 30.
The auction takes place during London’s Frieze Week when Christie’s will offer a range of art and design including paintings, drawings, sculpture, design and photography over five auctions and one exhibition.
