A Five-Point Guide to the Work of Francis Bacon

Andrew Stewart MacKay | AnOther | 4th May 2016

Bacon firmly considered himself a realist painter. Considering the nightmarishly contorted bodies that populate his paintings, this surprises – until Bacon’s true purpose is clear. He was not trying to represent the person but the sensation of that person. “His paintings strive not to tell stories but to clamp themselves [directly] on the viewer’s nervous system”. Interesting comments by other artists, and images, are here.Image: Tate