It’s like Francis Bacon week on The Amateur Art Collector!  A big retrospective of his opened at the Met yesterday, but to surprisingly little buzz in New York as far as I can tell.  There’s also a related lecture tomorrow at 6pm that’s free with museum admission.

Here’s the official website and blurb:

The first major exhibition in New York in twenty years devoted to one of the most compelling painters of the twentieth century, Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective features some 130 works–sixty-five paintings and as many archival items from public and private collections from around the world–that span the entirety of the artist’s full and celebrated career. Marking the centenary of the artist’s birth in Dublin in 1909, the exhibition brings together the most significant works from each period of Bacon’s career, focusing on the key subjects and themes that run through his extraordinary creative output. The presentation affords the most comprehensive examination to date of Bacon’s sources and working processes, offering a reevaluation of the artist’s work in light of a range of new interpretations and archival materials that have emerged since his death in 1992.

Hilarious!  Shot in Chelsea, NYC on Saturday.

A video from BBC News reports on the first-ever Fine Art goodwill ambassador for the UN, Ross Bleckner.  He’s spearheading an initiative in northern Uganda to ease the trauma of former child soldiers using art therapy.  Some pictures these children produce are available for viewing and sale at the UN headquarters in NYC– money raised funds the continuation of this worthwhile project.  Check out the video here.