Bacon in Moscow
James Birch with Michael Hodges
This funny and personal memoir is the account of an audacious quest by James Birch, the young British curator, to mount the ground-breaking Francis Bacon exhibition at the newly furbished Central House of Artists, Moscow in 1988.
Somewhat sidelined by the British establishment, Birch found himself not only the subject of a honey-trap, but also the focus of the KGB and a picaresque and shady cast of officials, attachés and politicians. Birch’s exhibition brought an unseen Western culture to Russia during perestroika, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, making it part of the sea of change in the events that subsequently unfolded.
HARDBACK PUBLISHED ON: 27/01/2022
£17.99
ISBN: 2001797004231
Praise for Bacon in Moscow
‘This really is a peculiarly evocative & authentic title… [Birch’s] anecdotes shine’ - The Observer
‘There’s a mini series itching to get out of this book… It has all the right ingredients’ - The Times
‘A 'forthright and enjoyably strung-out anecdote about the gallerist’s hidden plight… An enjoyable portrait of two insular, rather dysfunctional societies' – The Spectator
‘This is a curator's memoir more thrilling than most’ – Apollo Magazine
About the authors
James Birch has been a promoter of modern art exhibitions both in the UK and overseas for over thirty years. He opened his first gallery, James Birch Art, in 1983, which specialised particularly in showing the work of Surrealists and Young British Artists. His second gallery, Birch & Conran Fine Art, opened in 1987 in London’s Soho, and a decade later he opened the A22 Gallery, in Clerkenwell, London. James has exhibited artists including Grayson Perry, Francis Bacon, Gilbert & George, Genesis P Orridge and Austin Osman Spare and Denis Wirth-Miller in galleries all over the world.
Michael Hodges has reported extensively from Russia and the Middle East. He has written for many newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, the Financial Times, Time Out, New Statesman and Esquire. He is the author of AK47: THE STORY OF THE PEOPLE’S GUN. He is currently editor-at-large of the Radio Times and he lives in London with his family.