Liberté Toujours (AKA Modern Art: It’s not done) MARTHA PARSEY I PASCAL ROUSSON I CEDRIC CHRISTIE
When Malevich hung his black square in the Suprematist exhibition in 1915 and created Modernism, did he consider himself a modernist? Why did he hang his painting where Russian families would hang their icons? Did that put him closer to an orthodox God or was it just a declaration of the supremacy of pure artistic feeling?
When Cezanne broke up the Provence landscape into cubes that would create Cubism and later make Picasso move closer to the Montagne Sainte Victoire to be buried there, did he know the greatest artist of the 20th century would want to lie in his wake at the foothills of his modest landscapes?
When Mondrian moved to New York at the end of his life and perceived the complex vibrant city as a square of geometric shapes, did he know that New York would become the birthplace of Abstract Expressionism?
We don’t have any answers to these questions. But we think about them. We think about what a modern artist is, what modern art is today. And like in the Socratic Method, the questions go on.
Questions questions, questions. As Euripides said ‘Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing’. Take Courage.
MPHQ Project Space and bENESIS55 present MARTHA PARSEY I OLIVER ABRAHAM in Tête-à-Tête, an exhibition of works that explore the portrait in photography and painting. The exhibition runs from Saturday 9th May- Saturday 13th June
BACON’S HISTORIES: Study for a Portrait at All is Joy, 75 Dean Street London.
28th February 7pm. Entrance free.
MPHQ Pictures and All is Joy London present the first cinema screening of Martha Parsey’s motion picture artwork BACON’S HISTORIES: Study for a Portrait in London. The film explores the influence of the Greeks and Egyptians on Bacon’s oeuvre and brings together both archive footage and unpublished recordings of Francis Bacon in interview with David Sylvester as well as interviews with his most frequently painted female subject Henrietta Moraes.
Shot on location in Greece, London, Paris, Spain, Egypt, South Africa and Germany. In English, French, Greek and Russian with English subtitles.
JARILAGER Gallery presents in collaboration with MPHQ Pictures the first gallery screening as a motion picture artwork of Martha Parsey’s third film in her film trilogy on Francis Bacon ‘BACON’S HISTORIES; Study for a Portrait’. The exhibition includes a number of screenings and is accompanied by an exhibition of Martha Parsey’s paintings.
Currently in post-production on the film BACON’S HISTORIES; Study for a Portrait, a 60 minute film shot in Greece, London, Paris, Spain, South Africa, Egypt and Germany. An extended trailer for BACON’S HISTORIES: Study for a Portrait can be viewed here:
BACON’S HISTORIES: Study for a Portrait. Directed by Martha Parsey
MPHQ Pictures is currently in post-production on SHAKESPEARE’S GHOST, a cinematic conversation between Ken McMullen and Martha Parsey on the enduring influence of Shakespeare, based on Ken McMullen’s film ‘Hamlet Within’ and upcoming film on King Lear ‘Head of State’.
A recut of the film ‘Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon’.
Meeting Francis Bacon in London’s Soho of the 1960s, Henrietta Moraes (1931-1999) became a close friend of Bacon’s and his most frequently painted female subject. In interview at Bacon’s exhibition of small portraits at the Marlborough Gallery, London, Henrietta describes her relationship to Francis Bacon, intercut with Francis Bacon in interview with David ; a final dialogue between model and artist.
The film can be viewed here:
‘Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon’. 2024
In June 1891 Paul Gauguin landed in Tahiti with a romantic image of an untouched paradise. After six years settled on the island, and crippled by self-doubt and unable to paint for six months, Gauguin vowed to paint his final masterpiece, his last work, inscribed with the questions: ‘D’où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous’ I ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
In September 2022 MPHQ Project Space Cologne I London presented the exhibition Paradise Lost in Cologne. With the title taken from John Milton’s 1667 epic poem, Paradise Lost gave artists the scope to approach and explore the questions Gauguin had posed in the 19th century: How artists reflect on the changing world around them and maintain dialogue in a time of crisis.
Paradise Lost II in London presents 5 artists from Cologne and 5 artists from London to further ensure the exchange between artists and gallery spaces in the UK and the EU and to explore the questions we pose and the answers we seek as the flood of images force the artist to question their role as image and social commentary provider, that emphasises the ongoing importance of artistic endeavour and cultural exchange in a rapidly changing world.
MPHQ Pictures is an independent film production company focusing on art cinema and films on art.
BACON’S HISTORIES: Study for a Portrait
Stills from ‘BACON’S HISTORIES; Study for a Portrait’
Currently in post-production on the film BACON’S HISTORIES; Study for a Portrait, a 50 minute film shot in Greece, London, Paris, Spain, South Africa, Egypt and Germany.
The final film in Martha Parsey’s Francis Bacon film trilogy explores the influence of the Histories, namely the Greek dramas, Egyptian sculpture, and poetry and literature on Francis Bacon’s painting; both in his style and choice of subject matter. The film is underscored by previously unpublished interviews with Francis Bacon discussing at length the influence of the Greeks and Egyptians, as well as the influence of T. S. Eliot and the work of Shakespeare.
MPHQ is currently in post-production on the film SHAKESPEARE’S GHOST, a 20 minute cinematic conversation between Ken McMullen and Martha Parsey on the enduring influence of Shakespeare, based on Ken McMullen’s film Hamlet Within and his upcoming film on King Lear Head of State. Shot in Greece. Language: English.
Shakespeare’s Ghost directed by Martha Parsey
MODEL AND ARTIST; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon
Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon contains the only filmed interview with Henrietta Moraes, intercut with Francis Bacon in interview with David Sylvester.
Meeting Francis Bacon in London’s Soho of the 1960s, Henrietta Moraes (1931-1999) became a close friend of Bacon’s and his most frequently painted female subject. In interview at Bacon’s exhibition of small portraits at the Marlborough Gallery, London, Henrietta describes her relationship to Francis Bacon, intercut with Francis Bacon in interview with David Sylvester; a final dialogue between model and artist.
‘Model and Artist: Hernrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon’.
FRANCIS BACON IN PARIS
Stills from ‘Francis Bacon in Paris’. Directed by Martha Parsey
David Sylvester, close friend and interviewer of Francis Bacon, hangs the Francis Bacon retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1996, four years after the artist’s death. Accompanying David Sylvester through the hanging of the show, Francis Bacon talks us through the works in his own words, from private conversations and previously unpublished interviews with David Sylvester from the 1970s, forming a final posthumous dialogue between artist and critic. An exhibition that was a testimony both to their lasting friendship and to Bacon’s supremacy as a painter, is staged in Paris, where Francis Bacon first decided to paint and David Sylvester first started writing.
I used to have dreams but they all came true. Oil on canvas. 30 x 40cm
Michael Conrads is an artist who divides his time between Germany and Mexico. Known for his geometric abstract painting he has recently been exploring new directions in his painting, sculpture and ceramics during a residency in Mexico. Michael is represented by Produzentengalerie Hamburg.
