Out of Chaos. Paper from the floor of Francis Bacon’s Studio: Independent 20th Century, New York

Collected over more than two decades by dealer and collector Michael Hoppen, this unique and rare collection brings together original photographs, contact sheets, collages, annotated prints, and source material that illuminate the working processes and intimate world of one of the twentieth century’s greatest painters, Francis Bacon. Much of the material originated from Bacon’s 7 Reece Mews studio in South Kensington, where he lived and worked from 1961 until his death in 1992. The studio, famous for its layers of photographs, books, newspapers, discarded canvases and painting materials, was not simply a backdrop to Bacon’s practice but an active part of it: a visual environment in which images accumulated, collided and acquired new possibilities.

At the heart of the exhibition is the relationship between photography and painting. Bacon rarely worked directly from life, instead turning repeatedly to photographs as a means of stimulating, distorting and transforming reality. The material gathered around him was extraordinarily diverse: photographs of friends and acquaintances, newspaper cuttings, reproductions, film stills, medical imagery and studies of the human body. Rather than imposing a hierarchy upon these sources, Bacon absorbed them into what might be described as a vast private reservoir of images.

Michael Hoppen at Independent 20th Century 
5th Floor, Sotheby's at The Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, New York

Preview: 24 September 2026
General admission: 25 - 27 September 2026

To request a full preview please email gallery@michaelhoppengallery.com

A limited edition independent publication, Out of Chaos, with an essay by Robin Muir, featuring all images in the show, accompanies this show. Please click here for further details