"Francis Bacon: Five Decades" opens at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
By Michael Young
Tony Bond speaks at the media preview of "Francis Bacon: Five Decades" at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2012. Photo by Michael Young for ArtAsiaPacific.
Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales’ (AGNSW) summer blockbuster, “Francis Bacon: Five Decades,” opened November 17 amidst vociferous demonstrations outside the museum by AGNSW staff facing retrenchment. State Premier Barry O’Farrell, responsible for an AUD 1.2 million budget cut to the museum, was due to open the exhibition but pulled out at the last minute seemingly to avoid a monumental PR blunder. “We were just told he couldn’t make it. No reason was given,” a gallery insider told ArtAsiaPacific.
