Almost acting like an avant-garde anti-speciesist, Francis Bacon’s work does not hierarchise or antagonise humans and animals but most likely obsessively observes them both in action. Their despaired screaming expression, facing the onlooker disturbingly suggests a parallel to the crimes of the Second World War, where human words fall short to express the atrocities discovered in the aftermath of the conflict.Īs we wander through the exhibition, the artist’s authenticity, translated as cruelty and dread represented on canvas, forces us to face our own hidden emotions, excavating our deepest feelings, traumas, fears and finally helping us bring some reflection on our own mental health. These faceless images, neither human nor animal, with a fearful wide-open mouth seem to struggle, trapped in their own distorted bodies. In this painting, 3 monstrous figures evoking the Furies, symbols of persecution in the Greco-Roman tradition, evolve in a crimson background. This artwork acts as a concentration of all of the artist’s influences, from classic Catholic religious art format, surrealism and ancient Greek and Roman mythologies. However, the spellbound component of this work might be found in the phantasmagoric figure of the Christ, represented as a diaphanous stickman in a dark background, oddly manifesting the presage of all the forthcoming historical events to unfold.įollowing this Christlike thematic, visitors can observe ‘Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion,’ an impressive and moving tryptic released in 1944. In ‘Crucifixion’, one of his early paintings displayed in the exhibition and realised in the gloomy year 1933, the Spanish master’s influence is clearly distinctive. His fascination for surrealism and notably Pablo Picasso’s works played an important part in his autodidact formation. These 2 elements give the visitor a key to understanding his work, a mixture of amorphous figures in an angsty setting, sometimes reminiscent of the disfigured “broken faces” of the First World War.Īt age 16, expelled from his conservative family home for being an openly gay young man at a time when homosexuality was considered a crime, the teenager wandered through Paris and Berlin before settling in London in 1928. Starting from his childhood as an asthmatic son of a horse-breeder who developed a paradoxical relationship with animals, between fascination and mistrust, the spectator is also reminded that the artist grew up in times of political turmoil and conflict. Laid out in chronological order, visitors can experience the different stages of the artist’s life as they walk through the Piccadilly-based museum’s rooms. Curated by English art historian and author Michael Peppiatt, a close friend and biographer of the artist, this powerful exhibition is built around the profound stream of inspiration the animal reign provided throughout Bacon’s career. Painting on topics such as homosexuality, violence or existential dread through a combination of animal and human figures, the Royal Academy of Arts is celebrating his work and vision by hosting a temporary exhibition, ‘Man and Beast’ running until 17th April. Considered one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century, Irish-born artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is still a vivid figure in our contemporary mental landscape.
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