Artworks

Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was one of the most distinctive and influential British painters of the twentieth century, known for his disturbing and intensely psychological representations of the human figure. Largely self-taught, Bacon did not follow a conventional artistic path, initially working in interior design before turning to painting after encountering Picasso’s work in Paris in the late 1920s. Picasso’s distorted, organic forms had a profound influence on his understanding of the possibilities of painting. After years of experimentation and a bohemian life in London, Berlin and Paris, Bacon achieved critical recognition in the mid-1940s, establishing his reputation with Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944), a powerful meditation on human suffering and brutality. His subsequent paintings frequently employed distorted figures, isolated spaces and geometric frames to create a sense of confinement and unease. Portraiture became increasingly important, while his use of the triptych allowed him to explore relationships between images without conventional narrative. Drawing on themes of violence, mortality, sexuality and the human condition, Bacon developed a unique visual language of raw emotional and physical intensity. His work profoundly influenced subsequent generations of artists and thinkers, most notably inspiring Gilles Deleuze’s influential philosophical study Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (1981).

Exhibition: 100 Years: Translation as Invention