Yareah Magazine

By Ann Timmermans

Known for his violent, dark, blurry, grotesque and homoerotic paintings, 

foto de Wikipedia

Francis Bacon tried to represent the psychological and emotional inner life of his portrayed people by deforming them.

Both the external and the internal aspect of the depressed, desperate and lonely figures were created. Unclear lost souls in dark surroundings who fled a world of chaos.

Impressed by the emotional Les Massacres d’Innocents by Poussin, the furniture designer felt inspired to start painting.

Not academically trained, Bacon put the conviction of his intellectual ancestor Sir Francis Bacon, who stated the mind should be freed from idols before the acquisition of knowledge can begin, into practice.

The artist developed his own technique which was at right angles to all painting conventions: throwing paint on an unprepared canvas to spread out the daubs afterwards. By experimenting and practicing, he tried to obtain the perfect composition, which is why he created series of the same subjects.  He was known to destroy his artworks when they did not please him. As his friend Lucian Freud, whose portrait he painted more than 20 times and whom he depicted on a crucial triptych which represented a crucial period in Bacon’s life, the creative mind moulded his paint with a dynamic energy.

Among his subjects are paintings by Van Gogh, Vélazquez, pope Innocentius; the mouth, predators, the suicide of his lover George Dyer, crucifixion, apes, X –Rays.

His orange Three Studies for Figures at the Base of A Crucifixion(1944) were his breakthrough.

In the art world, which was dominated by abstract expressionism and Cobra, the Post World War atmosphere was of overriding importance in becoming known as an artist. The population had experienced enough misery and pain thus wanted something else, something fresh like experimental art.

His work became more autobiographical in the 60’ies with portraits of loved ones and acquaintances. He also started painting triptychs about his own life.

A dramatic change in style was to be noticed in the 1980’s, replacing the rough brushstrokes with a delicate, more realistic style.

Bacon’s oeuvre should be awed.

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