Untitled (Figure with Raised Arm), c. 1949 by Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty celebrates the centenary of Francis Bacon's birth at 63 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin on 28 October 1909. His father, a former captain in the British army, moved to County Kildare to breed and train racehorses. Following a disagreement with his father, Francis left home at the age of 16 and after a stay in London he travelled to Berlin, but it was in Paris that he found a new sense of purpose. An exhibition of drawings by Picasso at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg inspired Bacon to become an artist. On his return to London he achieved some success as a furniture designer, but soon rejected this path and turned to painting. He first gained recognition as a painter with Crucifixion in 1933, but it was not until the mid- 1940's that his artistic career took off. The critical success of his Three Studies for Figures at the base of a Crucifixion, c. 1944, established Bacon as a new force in post-war art. Apart from periods spent in Monte Carlo, Tangier and Paris he spent the rest of his life in London. His high spirits, ready wit and exceptional generosity attracted people from a wide variety of backgrounds including artists, writers and Soho eccentrics. Many of these individuals feature in his portraits.
The artist himself was nothing if not eccentric and the Hugh Lane exhibition include some of the work that he destroyed after exhibiting or if he was not happy with it, by cutting pieces out of the canvas with a knife.
Francis Bacon died in Madrid in April, 1992.
Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty celebrates the centenary of Francis Bacon's birth at 63 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin on 28 October 1909. His father, a former captain in the British army, moved to County Kildare to breed and train racehorses. Following a disagreement with his father, Francis left home at the age of 16 and after a stay in London he travelled to Berlin, but it was in Paris that he found a new sense of purpose. An exhibition of drawings by Picasso at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg inspired Bacon to become an artist. On his return to London he achieved some success as a furniture designer, but soon rejected this path and turned to painting. He first gained recognition as a painter with Crucifixion in 1933, but it was not until the mid- 1940's that his artistic career took off. The critical success of his Three Studies for Figures at the base of a Crucifixion, c. 1944, established Bacon as a new force in post-war art. Apart from periods spent in Monte Carlo, Tangier and Paris he spent the rest of his life in London. His high spirits, ready wit and exceptional generosity attracted people from a wide variety of backgrounds including artists, writers and Soho eccentrics. Many of these individuals feature in his portraits.
The artist himself was nothing if not eccentric and the Hugh Lane exhibition include some of the work that he destroyed after exhibiting or if he was not happy with it, by cutting pieces out of the canvas with a knife.
Francis Bacon died in Madrid in April, 1992.
2 comments:
A very intriguing title. There is something very haunting in his eyes...
xo
Zuzana
He was certainly a very strange man Protege! He never went to Art school and was completely self-taught. And he always painted on the back of a canvas, not on the proper front side. There is video footage in the exhibition of an interview with him and he comes across as eccentric but likeable. I think very many geniuses are eccentric!
p.s. I had a Trojan virus on my computer for 2 days which nearly drove me mad. I eventually got rid of it with a free programme - MalWare Bytes Anti Malware. (Thanx Ken!)
After that my Blog started playing up and I couldn't access Blogspot for 24 hours. Seems to be OK now though (fingers crossed).
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