Francis Bacon in purgatory

Chris Morgan | The New Criterion | 3rd December 2015

Francis Bacon’s early paintings show figures in “desperate, nightmarish predicaments”. In later career, this shock factor mellowed out. A show in New York of his later work thus poses the question of whether the senior Bacon was resting on his laurels. Not really – “one does not get the sense… that Bacon had found peace in his work.  It makes more sense to say that his work found temporary respite.” More images are here.