I mentioned previously that I “splurged” at the AGO and bought admission to the “Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty” exhibit.  I’d studied Francis Bacon in university (one of my classmates did a really good presentation on him), so paying the $5.50 extra to get admission didn’t seem like a lot.

I didn’t know about Henry Moore, so I figured that this would be a good chance to learn.  He is most well known for his sculptures, but I found his sketches really interesting.  During WW2 he sketched people who had sought refuge from the Blitz in the London Underground.

The sketches were done with pencil, gauche, ink and wax on paper, and the end result is amazing.  There was a video showing the artist drawing a picture using this technique, and it was brilliant to watch.

As for Francis Bacon, well I’d expected to see a lot of screaming Popes, but surprisingly there weren’t very many.  There were a lot of other works, though, and I was intrigued by “Figure in a Blue Box” and “Marching Figures”.

There was no photography permitted in the special exhibit, so how do I remember which paintings I liked?  Well, I took notes:

I also wrote down Lawren S. Harris: a Canadian painter, and one of the Group of Seven.  His landscapes are really amazing:

And I also wrote down the name Tom Thomson.  He was an influence on the Group of Seven, but died (mysteriously) before their official formation.  I like his northern lights and winter scenes.

And there’s still more artists to go…