‘The exhibition inaugurating Meeting ’83 is truly extraordinary. Some of the most significant works by Francis Bacon will come to Rimini from the Brera Museum, which only recently acquired them. Amongst others, there will be the famous 1933 “Crucifixion”, about which Giovanni Testori wrote: “… maybe the existence of man and, above all, the possibility of his survival in the coming decades, will be centred around that figure of crucified flesh; as if to tell us: everything is there: the origin of reality, reality itself, its meaning and its salvation; and also what reality became throughout time, that is, history “. The works presented in Rimini include: “Landscape”, painted in ’52, after his first African stay; “Van Gogh going to work”, part of the series of works dedicated to the Dutch painter between 1956 and ’57; “Study for a Pope I-VI” of ’61, “Study for a portrait ” of ’53, ” Study for a portrait II” of ’56, inspired by the portrait of Pope Innocence X by Velasquez, a constant in Bacon’s production, as is the Crucifixion; “Sphinx” of ’54, which concludes the eponymous series; “Figure in a room” and “Figure sat on a couch” of ’62; “Head” of ’56, an interpretation of the head of Pharaoh Aknaton, inspired by a photograph; “huddled nude” of ’61. Once again it is Testori who comes up with the most interesting way of understanding the work of Bacon: “Thus we ask ourselves (and maybe this question can generate an interpretation of the work of Bacon less looking to the past and more projected towards the future, as it deserves): is it possible that with his alarming attitude, the miserable but also sublime Bacon, persecutor and victim, wanted to throw before us the last real pieces of our created body, that is the only remains, the only audacious but still sacred fragments, which to cling to in order not to lose our human identity (only within these remains and fragments is contained the sign of he who could and can give meaning and destiny to our fragility)?”.’