ROYAL ARTS VISIONS; Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, Monaco

Francis Bacon

MB Art Foundation

 Monaco

28.10.2014 - 28.10.2024

10 Years of Passion and Emotion

“[...] after all what is art about? It is trying to make something

out of the chaos of existence” Francis Bacon

GENESIS OF THE FRANCIS BACON MB ART FOUNDATION,

BY MAJID BOUSTANY

“The very essence of my foundation is the sharing of a devouring passion for Francis Bacon with researchers, art historians, exhibition curators, writers, students and other visitors.” Majid Boustany

“I found myself confronted by Bacon’s monumental oeuvre more than thirty years ago, whose tragic scope overwhelmed me.” Majid Boustany

“This oeuvre, highly figurative, charged with intense emotion arouses enthusiasm and passion in some, irritation and bewilderment in others, but leaves no-one indifferent.” Majid Boustany

Majid Boustany Photo © Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation

Being fascinated by Francis Bacon is one thing, devoting a place to him in homage is another.

Could you explain how your foundation came to be? (extract from an interview between Yves Peyré, writer, poet and friend of Francis Bacon, and Majid Boustany, in Summer 2024)

“Through close study of Bacon’s paintings, of his life punctuated with tragic events and his creative process, I ended by apprehending him in a new light. This artist whom I so admired profoundly disrupted my perception of art, life and the most burning concerns of my existence. I was so seduced by his work that I felt the need to share that passion with the greatest number. I then began to dream obsessively of a concrete project in his memory, knowing full well that such an initiative would change my life irrevocably. And after a long period of reflection and sleepless nights imagining such a scheme, the decision to create a non-profit foundation crystallised around 2010.

The period preceding the creation of this institution was filled with unforgettable moments. First I had to convince the Estate of Francis Bacon of the project’s relevance. So I met in London with its Administrator, Elizabeth Beatty, who was surprised by the idea, finding it unusual, and, at the very least, intriguing. She suggested I meet the art historian Martin Harrison, an authority on the artist’s work, who, at the time, was immersed in writing the catalogue raisonné of Francis Bacon’s oeuvre. At our first meeting in his modest mews house in the heart of London, I presented the project to him, emphasising that I planned to house the future foundation in Monaco: not only had I been a resident for years, but it was also where Bacon lived and worked from the mid-1940s. We spent a memorable afternoon discussing our common passion for this phenomenal artist and his attachment to the Principality. Martin immediately approved the project and made me a confession: he had been waiting years for someone to ‘knock on his door’ with such a plan! Shortly thereafter, I met Brian Clarke, the executor of the Estate of Francis Bacon. A painter, engraver and architectural artist, he had become famous worldwide for his stained glass designs.I thought his insight as an artist was fundamental to my initiative. He unhesitatingly supported it and offered me some advice that turned out to be essential to the Foundation’s future.

Another point remained indispensable: I needed the support of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco. At my audience with the Sovereign, the idea of creating a Monegasque foundation to honour one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century – who, in addition, had a deep connection with the Principality – immediately aroused his enthusiasm. Once the Sovereign and the Monegasque authorities gave their approval, a negotiation began to reach a long-term agreement between the future foundation and the Estate of Francis Bacon. We signed an agreement in October 2011 and I was honoured to count Martin Harrison as one of the board members of our institution. Lengthy construction work began in 2012 at the Villa Élise, to remodel part of the building for a research centre devoted to the artist and to create a museum space accessible to the public. The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation was inaugurated by the Sovereign on 28 October 2014, coinciding with the painter’s birthday. I must admit the genesis of the foundation remains one of the most exhilarating periods of my life.“

Majid Boustany and H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, at the inauguration of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in Monaco, 28 October 2014

Photo © Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, Monaco.

“Like a pilgrim, I explored Europe in the footsteps of Bacon, seeking precious clues about his

life, often bringing with me close friends and relatives, whom I had already converted to Bacon. My story with him has become an endless adventure. As to regrets, I have only one: never having met him. He left us shortly after my discovery of his 1944 triptych at the Tate Gallery. A missed encounter.” Majid Boustany

Francis Bacon in his studio at 7 Reece Mews, London, in March 1972. Photo and © Jacques Saraben / MB Art Collection.

A short biographical notice on Francis Bacon:

Born in Dublin on 28 October 1909 / Died in Madrid on 28 April 1992.

A self-taught artist, at the age of 20 he started a four-year career as an interior decorator, and began his first paintings at that time. From 1933 he dedicated himself to painting, until his death at the age of 82. He is a major figurative painter of the twentieth century.

Stayed in France in 1927-28 and settled in London from 1929. He had a studio-apartment in Paris, near the Place des Vosges, from 1974 to 1987.

Had his first retrospective at the Tate in London in 1962 then at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1971, an exhibition which marked his consecration. Bacon regarded this show as the most significant he ever had in his career.

Lived in Monaco from 1946 until the early 1950s and frequently stayed in the Principality throughout his life.

His oeuvre only encompasses 584 paintings and fewer than 20 pieces of furniture.

Francis Bacon with Reinhard Hassert, in the gardens of the Monte-Carlo Casino, in Monaco, in November 1981. Photo and © Eddy Batache / MB Art Collection.

EVENTS AROUND THE 10th ANNIVERSARY

On 28 October 2024, the anniversary of the British painter’s birth, the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation celebrates its tenth anniversary. To mark this occasion, a variety of events illustrates ten years of commitment to study and research on Francis Bacon, furthering the influence of his monumental oeuvre:

• The exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Graphic Works’ presented until early 2026 at the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in Monaco.
• The exhibition ‘Francis Bacon and The Golden Age of Design’ at the eac. Donation Albers-Honegger in Mouans-Sartoux, presented until 5 January 2025, co-curated and supported by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation.
• The important loan of rare photographs of Francis Bacon granted by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation to the National Portrait Gallery in London, to be shown at their ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’ exhibition, from 10 October 2024 until 19 January 2025.
• ‘The Anointing’ at the Villa Arson, Nice, an exhibition dedicated to Lukas Meir, the recipient of the 2023 Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation artist scholarship, from 27 September 2024 until 2 February 2025
• And especially conceived for this occasion the publication of Francis Bacon in a New Light, a reference book on Francis Bacon with 9 essays by major art historians, specialists and/or friends of Francis Bacon, and an interview with Majid Boustany by Yves Peyré.

‘Francis Bacon : Graphic Works’ exhibition at the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, in Monaco

Until early 2026 At the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation Curator: Elsa Boustany

The exhibition examines the processes and tools used to produce Bacon’s prints and illuminates the circumstances of the works’ creation. Through a selection of engravings, it explores the recurrent themes that nourished the painter’s imagination.

Francis Bacon’s stance towards printmaking was characterised by a notable ambivalence. Despite claiming to have no interest in the medium, he ended up agreeing to the reproduction of some of his major works and even became involved in the process of creating these prints.

The first part of the exhibition shows the metal plates used to create some of the engravings, alongside the images that resulted from them.

Credits for both visuals: View of the exhibition “Francis Bacon: Graphic Works”

Lithographs by Francis Bacon © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved

Photo © Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation / MB Art Collection

The hang furthermore emphasises the importance of repeating images, a practice favoured by Bacon, which manifests itself in his graphic works in the principle of reproduction.

Through a selection of prints, the exhibition explores certain themes which were dear to the British painter. Bacon’s favoured themes, which encompass the human figure, bullfighting, Greek mythology and religious subjects, share a common characteristic: a marked interest in the human condition. The presentation of these graphic works therefore provides an opportunity to examine in depth the narratives which stem from these themes.

The display is also punctuated by photographs and working documents from the artist’s various studios, as well as journals and folios that provide a better understanding of Bacon’s approach to engraving.

All the pieces presented come from the MB Art Collection – the private collection of the founder of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation.

‘Francis Bacon and The Golden Age of Design’,

at the Espace de l’Art Concret, in Mouans-Sartoux

From 9 June 2024 until 5 January 2025

At the eac. Centre d’art contemporain d’intérêt national, Donation Albers-Honegger Co-curators: Elsa Boustany, Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation and Fabienne Grasser-Fulchéri, Director of the eac. Donation Albers-Honegger Artists : Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Eileen Gray, Fernand Léger, Le Corbusier, André Lurçat, Roy de Maistre, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Mies van der Rohe, ....

View of the exhibition room “Francis Bacon and the Golden Age of Design” at the eac., 2024.

As well as displaying design objects, the exhibition includes paintings by artists such as Roy de Maistre, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso to provide a fuller picture of the context of this period and the various infl¬uences on Bacon.

A large part of the exhibition is devoted to paintings from Fernand Léger’s ‘Purist’ period, which are directly echoed in the geometric designs of Francis Bacon’s rugs.

The works by Francis Bacon on display come from the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, which houses Majid Boustany’s private collection (MB Art Collection). This collection holds the largest number of rare pieces of furniture and rugs dating from that period.

Francis Bacon, Table, circa 1929, tubular steel structure topped with a mirror

© The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, ADAGP, 2024 / MB Art Collection.

‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London

From 10 October 2024 until 19 January 2025

At the National Portrait Gallery, London

Curator: Rosie Broadley

The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is a major lender for this show proposing a series of rare photographs of Francis Bacon including two unique portraits of the British painter, taken by Helmar Lerski in 1929 and by Francis Julian Gutmann in 1933.

Featuring more than 55 works from the 1950s onwards, this exhibition will explore Francis Bacon’s deep connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre.

From his responses to portraiture by earlier artists, to large-scale paintings memorialising lost lovers, works from private and public collections will showcase Bacon’s life story. Accompanied by the artist’s self-portraits, sitters include Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne and lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer.

“Francis Bacon was deeply engaged with portraiture, challenging long-established expectations of what a portrait should entail. For him, it was the pre-eminent painting genre, capable of expressing what it meant to be human. As one of the greatest British painters of the last century,

I’m delighted to bringing so many of Bacon’s works to the National Portrait Gallery for the first time, as we stage London’s first ever exhibition dedicated to his many portraits, fusing image and paint in a truly unique way.”

Rosie Broadley

Joint-Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery

Photograph on loan for the exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London: Francis Bacon in London, circa 1933. Photo et © Francis Julian Gutmann / MB Art Collection

‘The Anointing’, an exhibition dedicated to Lukas Meir,

at the Villa Arson, in Nice

From 7 September 2024 to 2 February 2025, at the Villa Arson

Carte blanche to Lukas Meir, recipient of the 2023 Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation scholarship

Curator: Vittorio Parisi

What has become of holidays in the age of late capitalism? This is the question that drives Lukas Meir’s pictorial and sculptural work, as he observes beaches crowded with bodies, veritable temples in which this strange, profane, yet, in the artist’s words, ‘almost religious’ ritual seems to take place. A ritual that ‘promises redemption from earthly suffering’, notably manifested in the joyous acceptance of an injury: sunburn. Lukas Meir sees it as an act of faith, the self-punishment of a martyred society ‘ready to die for its belief in eternal growth’. In the ironic and deliberately exaggerated use of this metaphor, a fundamental role is played by sunscreen: an attempt at protection and healing, an ‘anointing of SPF 50’. This sunscreen appears on the damaged skin of the bathers in a grotesque and disturbing way: sometimes applied like a clown’s make-up, other times smeared on until it completely covers their faces, the coarseness of the white patches stands in stark contrast to the artist’s otherwise realist and highly refined brushwork, capable of referencing some of the great masters of the past while simultaneously desacralising them.

Lukas Meir, Balsam, 2024, oil on canvas © Alexandre Capan

Lukas Meir was awarded the 2023 ‘Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation scholarship’. He was chosen from a shortlist of young artists who graduated from Villa Arson in 2022 and 2023, distinguishing themselves through their practice of painting and drawing.

The artist’s support programme was initiated in 2017 by the Foundation through a partnership with the Villa Arson. The Foundation is committed to providing a grant every two years to a graduate of the Villa Arson holding a diplôme national supérieur d’expression plastique/DNSEP (the equivalent of a master’s degree), in recognition of artistic practice in painting or drawing.

Lukas Meir began his art studies at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, Germany, and graduated from Villa Arson, Nice, in 2023. His artistic practice includes painting and sculpture.

Meir’s work shows scenes of everyday life, using a visual language that evokes Renaissance religious painting. Through this confrontation, he seeks a level of meaning where the social and moral significance of the apparently profane can find expression.

Lukas Meir, surrounded by Robert Roux, Aurélie Valion, Majid Boustany and Sylvain Lizon at Villa Arson, 28 September 2023 © JC Lett / Villa Arson

The publication of a reference book on Francis Bacon, to be published on 28 October 2024 : Francis Bacon in a New Light

Contributors: Majid Boustany, Yves Peyré, Sophie Pretorius, Martin Harrison, Dr Rebecca Daniels, Dr Margarita Cappock, Milan Garcin, Michel Giniès, Elsa Boustany and Jacques Saraben

“I love being on this coast. With this light, one always seems to be on the edge of the real mystery” (Letter written by Francis Bacon from Monaco to Sir Colin Anderson, late 1947)

This book, published to mark the tenth anniversary of the Foundation, offers a new perspective on Bacon, the Francophile, by focusing on his unique ties with the French Riviera, France and Monaco, as well as presenting a set of enlightening texts by art historians and various testimonies from people close to the artist. It also recounts the history of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation and features a previously unpublished interview between its founder Majid Boustany, and Yves Peyré, a writer, poet and friend of Francis Bacon.

THE FRANCIS BACON MB ART FOUNDATION

​​​Exterior view of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation. Photo © Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation.

Based in Monaco, the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is a non-profit institution dedicating its activities and research to Francis Bacon’s art, life and creative process.

It is the only foundation worldwide dedicated to Francis Bacon.

Interior view of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation Photo © Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation / MB Art Collection

The location

“The space was conceived as a place of memory, inhabited by the artist and his pictorial world.” Majid Boustany

The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is housed in Villa Élise, a Belle Époque house dating from 1897 and remarkably similar to the various Monaco residences occupied by Francis Bacon in the 1940s.The Foundation brings to mind the intimate surroundings of a house rather than a gallery or a museum. The idea of such a setting was born from a remark of Bacon’s, reflecting on his exhibition at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris in 1977. He then said he liked exhibiting in this gallery where the spaces are small and his paintings seem more intense.

The enveloping atmosphere of the Foundation is emphasised by the materials used in its design. Special attention has been paid to the décor: each detail, each element evokes the artistic vocabulary of Bacon’s works. The curtains and tassels, together with the hanging light bulbs, are reminders of the iconographic elements from the artist’s paintings. The light-grey and silver-grey tones of the walls echo Bacon’s 1940s palette while in Monaco.

View of the exhibition “Francis Bacon: Graphic Works,” lithographs and chest of drawers by Francis Bacon © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved Photo © Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation / MB Art Collection.

The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation :

• Presents exhibitions in its premises approximately every two years with the objective of showing this unique collection.

2024 – 2026 : ‘Francis Bacon: Graphic Works’

2021 – 2024 : ‘Francis Bacon’s Studios’

2018 – 2021 : ‘Francis Bacon: Portraits in Dialogue’

2014 – 2018 : ‘Francis Bacon, France and Monaco’

• Supports and takes part in the organisation of exhibitions dedicated to Francis Bacon, in conjunction with local and international institutions. By offering its expertise and agreeing to loans, the Foundation assists in staging these individual or collective exhibitions. Tate Liverpool, Grimaldi Forum Monaco, Guggenheim Bilbao, the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, the Beyeler Foundation Beyeler in Basel, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Royal Academy in London, the Musée Fernand Léger in Biot, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, the Espace de l’Art Concrêt in Mouans-Sartoux or the National Portrait Gallery in London are among the institutions with which the Foundation has collaborated.
•  Supports research by welcoming throughout the year art historians, researchers and students, and by awarding a research scholarship every four years to an École du Louvre postgraduate who is undertaking a PhD thesis on Francis Bacon.

The first two recipients of the ‘École du Louvre Research Scholarship’ are Milan Garcin (2016) and Cerise Thelwall Doussot (2020).

•  Encourages emerging artists, by providing a grant every two years to a young graduate artist of the Villa Arson in Nice.

The first four recipients of the ‘Young Artist Support Scholarship’ are Eglé Vismanté (2017), Mouna Bakouli (2019), Mathis Pettenati (2021) and Lukas Meir (2023).

• Has consolidated its authority over the years by becoming the most important publisher, co-publisher and publication sponsor of books and documentaries on Francis Bacon.

Examples of books published by the Foundation:

Francis Bacon: Studios (2021),

Francis Bacon: Francophile (2020),

Francis Bacon: Study for a Portrait (2019)

Examples of publications published with the support of the Foundation:

•

Inside Francis Bacon (‘Francis Bacon Studies’ series, vol. III, editor: Martin Harrison, publisher: The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, in collaboration with Thames & Hudson, 2020)

•

Francis Bacon or the Measure of Excess (English edition, author: Yves Peyré, publisher: ACC Art Books, 2020)

•

Bacon le cannibale (author: Perrine Le Querrec, publisher: Hippocampe Éditions, 2018)

•

Francis Bacon, France and Monaco (bilingual French-English edition, editor: Martin Harrison, co‑publishers: Albin Michel and the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, 2016)

Examples of documentaries produced or supported by the Foundation:

•

Francis Bacon/Ernest Pignon-Ernest: Exchanges (produced by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, directed by Alain Amiel, 2022)

•

Bacon: the Van Gogh Sequence (produced by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, directed by Alain Amiel, 2020)

•

Connexions : Bacon-Vélasquez (produced by France Télévisions, directed by Annie Dautane and Eve Ramboz, 2020)

How would you describe the principal missions of the Foundation? (extract from an interview between Yves Peyré, writer, poet and friend of Francis Bacon, and Majid Boustany, in Summer 2024)

The primary mission of the Foundation, as a non-profit institution, is to promote a better understanding of the work, life and working methods of Francis Bacon. Therefore, the educational approach is at the heart of our activity. Over the years, through extensive research, many publications and lectures, and thanks to our collection archive, we have acquired a particular expertise on the period during which the artist lived and worked in Monaco and France. The numerous actions of the Foundation have positioned it as an international research and study centre. The acquisition policy I established from the start, regularly enriching my collection, allows us to provide an essential working tool to art historians and researchers.

Our philanthropic initiatives include supporting research and artists, on the one hand, by providing a research scholarship every four years to a doctoral student of the École du Louvre and, on the other, by providing a support grant every two years to an emerging artist, graduating from the Villa Arson, to help them launch their career.

From our opening, we committed ourselves to contributing to the majority of exhibitions devoted to the British artist, through consenting to loans, financial support and providing our expertise. The Fondation Beyeler (Basel), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate Liverpool, Royal Academy and National Portrait Gallery (London), Grimaldi Forum Monaco and Musée des Beaux-Arts (Lyon) are among the institutions with which we have collaborated.

The Foundation has also consolidated its authority over the years by becoming the most important publisher, co-publisher and publication sponsor of works and documentaries on Francis Bacon.

Opening the doors of the Foundation to art historians and researchers, but above all, through our free guided tours, to the public, is one of my greatest satisfactions. The many letters and messages of thanks received throughout the year from visitors, whether neophytes or aficionados of Bacon,art historians, journalists or friends of the painter, touch me profoundly.

The MB Art Collection

“I must recognise that most of the artists I chose to include in my collection are intrinsically related to Francis Bacon and his monumental oeuvre.” Majid Boustany

The construction of the MB Art Collection was begun in the early 2010s by Majid Boustany. The founder’s choice to acquire certain pieces was led by his heart, but also by a desire to make them accessible to the greatest number and to offer a precious resource to art historians, researchers, exhibition curators and visitors to the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation.

In 2024, this collection encompassed more than three thousand, five hundred items, including the largest collection of the artist’s early paintings and pieces of furniture but also a corpus of works by artists who inspired Francis Bacon, like Walter Sickert and Alberto Giacometti, or who were close to him, such as Roy de Maistre, Denis Wirth-Miller, Vladimir Veličković, Louis le Brocquy, Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton and Graham Sutherland. Works by artists inspired either by Bacon himself as a model – such as César, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Clive Barker, Maggi Hambling and R. B. Kitaj – or by his work – like Robert Longo, Paul Rebeyrolle and Charles Matton – round off the collection.

The MB Art Collection also includes the most important photographic archive on Francis Bacon with over eight hundred photographs on the British artist and his studios taken by more than ninety photographers, graphic works, a unique collection of documents and working tools from Bacon’s various studios, correspondence, as well as books, magazines and exhibition catalogues, forming the most important library dedicated to Bacon.

Francis Bacon, ‘Painting’, circa 1930, oil on canvas © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, ADAGP, 2024 / MB Art Collection

MAJID BOUSTANY : PATRON

“Through these philanthropic actions, I wish to provide, in my own way, a vibrant tribute to French cultural institutions and the city of Paris, the uncontested capital of art and culture.” Majid Boustany

“As for my decision to support the Musée du Louvre, there too the shadow of Francis Bacon floated.” Majid Boustany

In addition to the various actions led by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, contributing to the influence of Francis Bacon’s oeuvre, its Founder and President, Majid Boustany, is leading multiple and major actions of patronage, mainly in France, focusing on training and research, and including the redevelopment and refurbishment of prestigious cultural institutions.

Cour Napoléon and Louvre pyramid © I.M. Pei / photo: © 2013 Louvre Museum / Olivier Ouadah

Musée du Louvre

In 2020, Majid Boustany created a dedicated fund within the Musée du Louvre Endowment Fund, The Majid Boustany Fund, aimed at supporting the restoration and conservation of the museum’s masterpieces that Francis Bacon admired on his many visits, some of which were sources of inspiration for his own paintings.

In 2024, the founder of the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation sought to reinforce his patronage of the Musée du Louvre – becoming a ‘major patron’ of the museum – by creating, within the endowment fund that bears his name, two new perennial initiatives: a research scholarship, the Majid Boustany Scholarship, awarded on an annual basis and open to PhD students from a wide range of graduate schools and universities in France pursuing their theses in history of art, archaeology or museum studies; and the Denon Prize, the first prize awarded every year by the Musée du Louvre intended to finance the publication of a thesis by young researchers who have undertaken a doctoral thesis in art history, archaeology or museum studies, also coming from a wide range of graduate schools and universities in France.

“If the French like my work, then I shall feel that I have,

to some extent, succeeded” 

Francis Bacon (Andrew Sinclair, Francis Bacon: His Life and Violent Times, New York, Crown, 1993, p. 206).

Grande Galerie of the Louvre Museum © 2009 Louvre Museum / Angèle Dequier

École du Louvre

In 2021, Majid Boustany offered the greatest support ever received by a teaching institution under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture by becoming the patron of the ambitious architectural project entitled ‘École du Louvre 2021-2022’, that included the redevelopment and refurbishment of the school library, its documentation and IT services, and its cafeteria, and the creation of a research centre.

Entrance to the École du Louvre, Porte Jaujard

Library of the École du Louvre, Witness VII (foreground) and Witness VIII (background), 2021, © Antony Gormley

Furthermore, Majid Boustany undertook to enhance the new library by donating an important collection of publications on Francis Bacon and by offering several artworks to be displayed in perpetuity in the École du Louvre: a Francis Bacon’s easel, a photograph of Bacon by Jesse A. Fernández, two sculptures by Antony Gormley, especially executed for the school library, as well as a large François Morellet composition and a César sculpture, both installed in the Hall Jaujard of the École du Louvre.

Francis Bacon’s easel from his Paris studio © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved

Meeting room adjoining the Research Center Photos © Majid Boustany

Other patronages

Majid Boustany also supported the restoration project for the documentation centre of the Centre for research and restoration of the museums of France (C2RMF) and sponsored projects with the association AWARE (Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions).

François Morellet, π baroco n°2 bleu, 1=45° (angles du même côté), 7 éléments, 2001, blue neon tubes, grease pencil on the wall © Estate François Morellet. Photo © Majid Boustany.

Based in Monaco, the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is a non-profit institution that devotes its activities and research to the work, life and creative process of Francis Bacon.

It is the only foundation dedicated to Francis Bacon in the world.

Housed in a Belle Époque villa dating from 1897, the Villa Élise, which was chosen for its resemblance to the various Monegasque residences in which the artist lived in the 1940s. Particular attention has been paid to its layout: each detail, each element evokes the artistic vocabulary of Bacon’s paintings.

he MB Art collection brings together more than 3,500 pieces, including the largest collection of the artist’s early paintings and pieces of furniture. It also includes the most important collection of photographs by Francis Bacon, a collection of graphic works, as well as a unique set of documents and working tools of the painter, books and other archives forming the most important library dedicated to the artist and allowing visitors and researchers a completely unique immersion in the world of one of the major artists of the 20th century.