Jean-Yves Mock (October 24, 1928 - September 5, 2021) was the assistant of Erica Brausen at the Hanover gallery. According to Mock, Brausen's famously acrimonious break with Francis Bacon was precipitated by the direct sale by Lucien Freud, another of her artists, of his painting ‘Girl with a White Dog’ to the Tate. Having cut her out of the deal, he informed her of this on the eve of his own exhibition’s opening in 1952, and Brausen told him to “get out of here. You don’t need to come back.” Freud was picked up by Marlborough and Bacon was seduced into following. It is also said by Mock that Bacon did not get on with Brausen’s partner Toto Koopman.
Mock was born in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine). He worked at the Hanover Gallery from 1956 until in 1973, when it closed. The gallery was originally founded in 1949 by Erica Brausen, primarily to showcase the work of the then relatively unknown artist, Francis Bacon. It went on to become one of the most important and influential establishments for three generations of 20th-century European artists, holding more than 300 exhibitions in 25 years. It was one of a handful of European galleries devoted to contemporary art at that time, alongside the Berggruen in Paris and Galerie Beyeler in Basel, and handled the sales of many pivotal works of art to prestigious museum collections. Jean-Yves's contribution was instrumental in discovering and promoting some of the 20th century's leading exponents of the avant garde and through his involvement he formed lasting friendships with many artists, as is illustrated by the numerous works dedicated to him in his collection.
Mock often paints himself as a mere tea boy (wielder of a feather duster and the person who stopped people touching the still wet paint on Bacon’s Van Gogh series) but he was a curator who went on to work at the Centre Georges Pompidou. He was a good friend of the film writer and scholar, Richard Roud, London correspondent of the French film magazine Cahiers du cinema. When the Hanover Gallery closed in 1973, Jean-Yves was invited by Pontus Hulton, Director of the Musée National de Paris, to join the curatorial team at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. During his distinguished career there he organised the first major retrospectives of Niki de Saint Phalle, Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely and, in 1984, he curated La rime et la raison at the Galerie National du Grand Palais, the only exhibition dedicated to the highly important international collections of the De Menil family. His invaluable contribution to the arts was acknowledged by the French State when he was made a Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des letters in 1985 and awarded L'Ordre du Merite in 1993.
Brausen died in Mock’s arms and she was buried with Koopman alongside her friend, the American publisher Jane Heap, a significant figure in the development and promotion of literary modernism. Mock loyally wrote to Serge July, editor of Libération after Bacon’s death lamenting their lack of mention for Brausen (the letter was not published).
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