Chiostro del Bramante hosts La Scuola di Londra: Opere della Tate.

26 Sept-23 Feb. Rome's Chiostro del Bramante will host a major exhibition dedicated to the School of London, featuring paintings by Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, organised in collaboration with the Tate in London.

The show, which runs from 26 September until 23 February 2020, unites the works of Bacon and Freud for the first time in Italy, highlighting one of the most significant chapters of international contemporary art in the 20th century.

The exhibition will comprise 45 paintings, drawings and engravings by six artists: Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Paula Rego, in addition to Freud and Bacon.

The figurative works span more than seven decades, from 1945 until 2004, and are described by Chiostro del Bramante as "direct, shocking, and no-filter."

The works share raw and emotionally-charged subject matter, with themes including the fragility of the human condition, war, immigration, excesses and the search for truth. In the case of Bacon and Freud, the works examine the artists' friendship as well as their relationships with their models.

Highlights of the show will reportedly include Bacon's Study for a Portrait (1952) and Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne (1966), and Freud's Girl with a White Dog (1950) and Standing by the Rags (1988).

The term 'School of London' was coined by artist R.B. Kitaj to describe a group of London-based artists pursuing forms of figurative painting in the face of avant-garde approaches in the 1970s.

Curated by Elena Crippa, the exhibition sees the Chiostro del Bramante continue its important collaboration with The Tate, following its hugely successful Turner show in 2018.

For more details see Chiostro del Bramante website.

Cover image: Detail of Girl with Kitten by Lucian Freud.