How Francis Bacon shunned the traditions of British art A new book,
Francis Bacon: Revelations, shows the painter as he tried to recapture the intensity of wartime when the world turned mundane. How great was the work of Francis Bacon? That’s the only question that matters, and it’s still a hard one to answer. Thirty years after his death, he hovers so large over British visual culture – such a vivid, garrulous, flamboyant, theatrical figure – that it is difficult to assess what he actually did, day after day, in the studio. This large, generous book contains it all: the childhood whippings by his father’s servants, the adolescent flight to interwar Berlin and Paris, the thieving, the cat burgling adventures, the overnight fame, the gangsters, beatings, the postwar Tangier dives and the long-lost nights of Soho in its bohemian prime; the wild, hilarious, bitchy lunches at Wheeler’s – all those oysters, all that champagne – and, of course, the dramatic se
21st Jan 2021
Wondering what to do with yourself? A buzzed-about debut novel, a beauty panel and an old film favourite – here’s what’s on tonight.
Whether you’re wondering about the future of “clean” beauty, looking for a new book for your book club or want to cosy into a comforting comedy you’ve seen a dozen times before, we have your evening plans covered.
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Today is a bumper day for book releases. From the much-anticipated
Girl A (mentioned in yesterday’s WOT) to
Ask No Questions by Claire Allan,
Forgive Me by Susan Lewis,
Francis Bacon: Revelations, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan,
According to his cousin and close friend Diana Watson, the mind of artist Francis Bacon seldom moved from the facts of love, death, massacre and madness . Now, decades on from Bacon s death in 1992, Pulitzer-prize winning critics Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan not only explore Bacon s preoccupation with those powerful themes in their authoritative and fascinating biography, but offer us a chronological and in-depth account of his background, life and times.
Like all great biographies, the figure centre stage is seen in the context of the zeitgeist. In this instance, family wealth, social mores, politics and sexuality colour, inform and determine Bacon s Irish upbringing, his time in Berlin, Paris and London and how he, with little or no formal education or training, turned from designer to artist.
A spark like Baconâs can also be a curse. Life is difficult for those whose skins are thin, and whose minds seldom find rest. âHe was wound very tightly,â says Stevens. âLike many artists, he didnât have filters. And he was shy, lonely and often very ill, so he created this persona.â
In that, Bacon was helped by the fact that he was naturally incredibly charming and, in his youth, extraordinarily physically beautiful. For those of us familiar with the lined, round-faced Bacon of his most famous older years, he had had a beauty that the authors describe as âalmost feminine . . . an allure so delicate . . . â In 1927 he was stopped in a Berlin street by photographer, Helmar Lerski, who asked him to sit for a portrait.