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Francis Bacon Signed Prints & Originals

Biography for Francis Bacon

1909-1992

Francis Bacon is internationally acknowledged as among the most powerful painters of the twentieth century. Francis Bacon’s vision of the world was unflinching and entirely individual, encompassing images of sensuality and brutality, both immediate and timeless. When Francis Bacon first emerged to public recognition, in the aftermath of the Second World War, his paintings were greeted with horror. Shock has since been joined by a wide appreciation of Francis Bacon’s ability to expose humanity’s frailties. Francis Bacon’s vision of the world has had a profound impact. It is born of a direct engagement that his paintings demand of each of us, so that, as he famously claimed, the ‘paint comes across directly onto the nervous system’.

As an atheist, Francis Bacon sought to express what it was to live in a world without God or afterlife. By setting sensual abandon and physical compulsion against hopelessness and irrationality, Francis Bacon showed the human as simply another animal. As a response to the challenge that photography posed for painting, Francis Bacon developed a unique realism which could convey more about the state of existence than photography’s representation of the perceived world. In an era dominated by abstract art, Francis Bacon amassed and drew upon a vast array of visual imagery, including art of the past, photography and film. These artistic and philosophical concerns run like a spine throughout Francis Bacon’s work.

Francis Bacon’s figurative works are renowned for their bold, austere, graphic and often tortured imagery. Francis Bacon’s abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds as depicted in Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three studies of the Human Body’ (panneau central) 1977. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych inspired by Oresteia of Aeschylus’ 1981. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study of a Human Body after Ingres, Diptych’ (panneau de droite) 1982. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Self-portrait Triptych’ 1985-86. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three Studies for a Self portrait’ 1983. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Edipe and the Sphinx after Ingres’ 1983. Francis Bacon, print, signed, ‘Seated Figure’ 1977. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych, (panneau de droite) 1991. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study for a Human Body’ no 2. 1987. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study for a Bullfight (panneau central)’ 1987.

Francis Bacon’s breakthrough came when he produced the master piece ‘Painting (1946)’. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three studies for figures at Base of a Crucifixion’ and Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Second Version of Painting 1946’ 1971. ‘Painting (1946)’ was shown at the Musee National d’art modern and bought by the Hanover Gallery a year later.

Francis Bacon made paintings related to the Crucifixion at pivotal moments in his career. The paradox of an atheist choosing a subject laden with Christian significance was not lost on Francis Bacon, but he claimed, ‘as a non-believer, it was just an act of man’s behaviour’. The instincts of brutality and fear combine with a deep fascination with the ritual of sacrifice. Francis Bacon had already made a very individual ‘Crucifixion’ in 1933 before returning to the subject with his break-through triptych ‘Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion’ in 1944. This is a key precursor to later themes and compositions, containing the bestial distortion of human figures within the triptych format. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych’ 1974-1977. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych August’ 1972. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych inspired by Oresteia of Aeschylus’ 1981. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych’ 1983 Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Second version of the Triptych 1944, en homage a Pierre Boulez, 1988. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Second version of the Triptych’ 1944, 1988.
In 1948 The Hanover Gallery held Francis Bacon’s first one man show. Exhibiting his Head series. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Head I’. Leading critics to write “Bacon is one of the most powerful artists in Europe today and he is perfectly in tune with his time”. And “Bacon has proved himself once more to be the most astonishingly sinister artist in England, and one of the most original”.

During the 1960’s, the larger part of Francis Bacon’s work shifted focus to portraits and paintings of his close friends; Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three studies for a Portrait of John Edwards’ (panneau de droite) Triptych 1984. Francis Bacon, print, signed, ‘Study for a Portrait of John Edwards’ 1986. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three studies for a portrait of Peter Beard I’ (panneau central) 1976. Francis Bacon, print, signed, ‘Portrait of Michel Leiris’ 1976. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study of portrait II, after the Life Mask of William Blake’. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Miroir de la tauromachie, Michel Leiris’ 1990.These works centre on two broad concerns: the portrayal of the human condition and the struggle to reinvent portraiture. Francis Bacon’s approach was to distort appearance in order to reach a deeper truth about his subjects. To this end, France’s Bacon’s models can be seen performing different roles; Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Seated Figure’. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study for a Human Body’ no 2, 1987.

With a mixture of contempt and affection, Francis Bacon depicted George Dyer, his lover and most frequent model, as fragile and pathetic. This is especially evident in Dyer’s first appearance in Francis Bacon’s work, ‘Three Figures in a Room’, in which Frances Bacon represents the absurdities, indignities and pathos of human existence. Everyday objects occasionally feature in these works, hollow props for lonely individuals which reinforce the sense of isolation that Francis Bacon associated with the human condition. After The death of his lover George Dyer in 1971 Francis Bacon recorded the event in his Triptych series George Dyer. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych in memory of George Dyer’ (panneau de gauche) 1971. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Triptych in memory of George Dyer’ (panneau central) 1971.

Produced at the beginning of the 1970’s; Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study for a Bullfight’. And in the late 1970’s; Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Figure at a Washbasin’ 1976.

Francis bacon often said in interviews that he saw images “in series”. Such as; Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three studies of the human body.’ Francis bacon, print, signed, ‘Three studies for self portrait’ 1983. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study for a self portrait’ 1982. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Three studies of Male Back’ 1970. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Studies of human body’ 1981.

Francis Bacon also said that “he had been very impresses by the work of a photographer who had produced striking effects using mirrors and natural light filtered through screens”. These influences were clearly developed and executed in; Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Man reflected in mirror.’ Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror’ 1976. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Study for the Human Body’ 1981. Francis Bacon, print, signed ‘Seated figure’ 1983.
Francis Bacon’s work has been exhibited all over the world, including the Guggenheim, New York, Grand Palais in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1975, when he produced for them; Francis Bacon, print, signed, ‘Affiche pour le metropolitan Museum of Art’. Francis Bacon’s most recent retrospective show was held at the Tate Britain in September 2008, exhibiting such great works as The Popes; Francis Bacon, print, signed, ‘Study from Innocent x 1964’.

Francis Bacon holds the auction record for the most expensive post war artist. Roman Abramovich paid £43 million for Francis Bacons Triptych ‘Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1962’.

* Approximate price based on current exchange rates.

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