Product Description
This is an unfinished utopian novel about a mythical land called Bensalem, where the inhabitants live happily with sciences, generosity and enlightenment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Unexpected
It's not what I thought it would be. The preview gave me the impression it is more science fiction or history related book, but it's really just Bacon's idea of an perfect society. It's way too flowery and wordy, and it is mostly a religious/politcal book.

Love Atlantis
Its a short book, and ends unfinished. Yet for a days worth of reading, you can find a lot of inspiring ideas.

Not What I Thought it Would Be
It's not what I thought it would be. It seemed to be advertised as an esoteric Rosicrucian document, but it's really just Bacon's portrait of an ideal society. It's true that society has Rosicrucian ideals, but it is mostly a politcal book.

Bacon is a rarity:an author that who writes with verve and insight!
This is a fascinating read and my favorite of all Bacon's writings.

A Must Have for the Esoteric Scholar!
I loved this book. It tied so much together for me regarding the mystery schools.If you are an esoteric fanatic like me, then this must be added to your collection. ... Read more

Product Description
This authoritative edition brings together an extensivecollection of Bacon's writing--the major prose in full,together with sixteen other pieces not otherwiseavailable--that reveals the essence of his work andthinking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

good book with thick notes
The book arrived sooner than I expected. Although the delivery of amazon was as bad as before and the cover pages of book was broken by the turbulence of delivery as before, the first touch of the book still gives me comfort.

the book begins with a long preface, and two pages of chronology. The content was about 2/3 of book, and the rest 1/3 was the note. I am familiar with author's name Bacon, and I have recited the essay 51, of study, but I never expected such a long note at the end of the book. It indeed need such a long list of note. The English author used was not modern and the grammar was strange, let alone the anecdotes and jargon.

It is a good book, and it costs time to comprehend it, and it worth the time.

Notes comprise half the book!GOOD!
Since Bacon expected his readers to understand the historical context of his writings, it is necessary for non-historians to dig into the notes FIRST!And this book has ample notes.
A bit of Latin wouldn't hurt either.

Missing a key text
I was very disappointed that Vickers decided to leave out NOVUM ORGANUM, one of Bacon's most important work, with one of the first descriptions of the scientific method, empirical science, and his key critique of the four "idols." Vickers says that he decided to give only the works in English, and NOVUM ORGANUM was written in Latin. There are translations available, however. The title of the book, THE MAJOR WORKS, isdeceiving.

The Best Bacon in Paperback
I concur with Gulley Jimson about the number of unnecessarily annotated words.The space could have been put to better use:a larger topical index would have been welcome, and I sorely missed Bacon's own apophthegms.But I would emphasize the positive point Jimson makes and do so in capital letters:this is the BEST edition of Bacon in paperback.Every page of the collection shows immense editorial care.

Though Vickers may have overdone the annotation, the notes are nonetheless exceedingly helpful.Vickers goes far beyond defining words.He provides concise and very well informed introductions to each individual piece; he points out how Bacon returns to topics, quotations, and metaphors; he identifies sources and allusions; he provides translations of Bacon's frequent use of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French.If he is overly cautious about how well his readers know English (he admits on p. 493 that he may be excessive), I expect that most readers will be grateful that he meticulously assists with words and phrases that have altered or vanished from use:who now will understand "a seeled dove" or "a net of subtility and spinosity"?

Vickers frankly acknowledges his debts to prior scholars, James Spedding and Michael Kiernan in particular.His introduction is concise, packed with information, and reminds modern readers that Bacon's career was a legal one.Vickers' decision to include two of Bacon's legal charges--one for poisoning, one regarding duels--was inspired;these pieces are short and eye-opening.

All in all, the selection pays tribute to Bacon in the best manner, refreshing his works by presenting them whole, with sympathy and respect, in their perilous historical context.

Meet Brian Vickers, insane pedant
I actually recommended this edition in another review over the Penguin collection of Bacon's essays - and I still do: there is more here, and it is cheaper.But this is still one of the most horrible pieces of scholarship I have ever come across.Vickers, the editor, has decided that there is absolutely no distinction between what a reader actually needs to know and what Brian Vickers happens to know.

Before I give some examples, here is the editor defending himself in the Preface: "Many of Bacon's words have totally changed their meaning since he wrote, and not to be aware of their intended sense means that readers would receive at best a vague impression."

Now, let me give an example of his helpful elucidations. I am choosing a passage literally at random.Here is first sentence of "Of Death."

Men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak

How many footnotes does that passage seem like it requires?Perhaps one, two at most?Vickers gives us six.He helpfully explains that "go" can also mean "walk" - which certainly opened up the entire passage for me.He cites a scholarly paper that analyzes Bacon's use of the word "death" (I'll go right out and read that one); he explains every possible allusion that the passage might contain, and also points out that "tribute" means "something owing."

I want to quote one more example, to show how seriously pathological this guy is.Here is the first sentence from Of Beauty: "Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set, and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect."

This perfectly ordinary sentence has - get this - five footnotes!"Best plain set" is identified as "Mounted simply."Vickers points out that "comely," in Bacon's distant 17th century English, actually means "attractive."That's still what it means, you nutcase!Anyway, he goes on like this for the entire book, and produces a truly astonishing 300 pages of notes for about 500 pages of actual text.

By the end of a single page, any reader who is actually reading Bacon for pleasure will be unable to tell when to flip to the back of the book, because every other word has a footnote mark next to it.The result is that the genuinely necessary notes, which could actually have been helpful, are lost along with the useless ones.

I showed my friend the book and after flipping through it his first reaction was: "Wow, this guy really hates Francis Bacon."And he might be right.Maybe Vickers resents the fact that he has devoted his life to this writer, and wants to bury him under an avalanche of minutae; or, more charitably, perhaps he feels that you are just too dumb to understand Francis Bacon without Brian Vickers explaining every single word to you.

Well, if the first is true, he is failed; and if the second, he is wrong: Bacon is as readable as ever.Ignore the footnotes and enjoy.But somewhere out there is an older edition of the Major Works edited by a sane man, where useful background notes are concisely provided - try to find it.And if there isn't, Oxford needs to hand these great pieces of writing over to someone else. ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon Commitment and ConflictWieland Schmied

Francis Bacon is given a highly insightful re-examination through critical commentary, brilliant reproductions and private photographs in this beautifully produced flexi edition.

The existential anxiety of modern man, the inescapability of death, and the catastrophe of loneliness are some of the themes that wend their way through Francis Bacon’s work, much of which took the form of triptychs or tortured self-portraits. In this comprehensive study of one of the twentieth century’s most passionately committed artists, Wieland Schmied offers an insightful overview of Bacon’s life, analyzes his paintings and examines the creative processes they embody. He explores in depth Bacon’s subtle use of space, the development of his imagery, idiosyncratic painting technique, and place in the pantheon of twentieth-century artists.

Wieland Schmied is the author of many books on twentieth-century art. He lives in Munich, Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An excellent introduction to Bacon
This is a very good book.The analysis of Bacon by Schmied is commendably straightforward and insightful, and he gives enough examples of the artists excessive appetites for booze and debauchery to keep your interest bubbling along.All Bacon's significant works are referenced and the accompanying prints are of a good standard.Also the binding is fairly solid for a softback, and should last well.

too small to read
The type was so small it was almost unreadable.It's as if the book was a small, cheap version of a large art book.

Not what but How
This is a fine book, content is five stars. My problem is with the pt. size of the text. I would say the type in this book is 1/3 the size of most books. If you use glasses or have trouble reading small type this is not a book you will be able to read on the subway. Photos, reproductions, information and price are very good. Have fun reading it, just know that if the lay out was different the text could have been larger.

Definitive Volume
Of all the books in print about the works of Francis Bacon, so many of them can be browsed without paying much attention to the commentary.Not here.This volume is extravagantly illustrated with many lesser known paintings by Francis Bacon, but it doesn't stop there.There is a very fine chronological timeline with photographs which show us the progression of the artist, his friends, lovers, influencing photographs, and interactions with other artists of his day.There is also a complete Exibition Schedule which holds some fascinating bits of information even to the avid Bacon fan. There are many photographs of Bacon's infamous studio in all its squallid splendor - some with the artist, some after his death.For sheer joy in getting to know a troubled genius, this book should be high on the list of recommended texts. ... Read more

Product Description
It was Sir Francis Bacon that first coined the term"knowledge is power". During his life time Sir Francis was considered to be one of the most intelligent men alive. This is one of the reason why he is often credited with writing the Shakespeare plays, as it was believed by many scholars that `only Francis Bacon could have been so cleaver.? Bacon's ideas about the improvement of the human condition are still very influential among people interested in motivation and self-improvement today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

keystone reading
This is an excellent writing by one of history/s most brilliant thinkers.I was moved by the thread in thinking and the refinement of these ideas by subsequent philosophers.His thought was sort of loose and seemed to touch many topics with what seems to me to be a less than logical pattern. ... Read more

Product Description
Bacon's famous discourse on the scientific method ... Read more

Product Description
A reissue of the extraordinarily revealing interviews with Francis Bacon conducted by Sylvester over a period of 25 years. They amount to a unique statement by Bacon on his art, and on art in general. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Excellent book! Very helpful to artists...
Ususally artists can't talk about their work. Francis Bacon talks, and he is very expressive..This book changed the way I feel and thinking about painting. As an artist myself I found really helpful material. Bacon talks very simple and goes to the essence. This book is not just for one reading! I have read it many times and never get bored.

Not exactly as insightful as I had hoped
To be 100% honest, I'm not sure ifI missed something that the other reviewers picked up or not, but I found the interviews with Francis Bacon to be fairly dull for the most part! Perhaps it is because I am neither a painter or an art critic. Regardless, I bought this book because I was interested in the philosophy and psychology of, in my opinion, the greatest and probably most unique artist in history. Although there are occasionally some wonderful insights into the mind of this painter, the majority of the first quarter of the transcript seemed to revolve around the interviewer trying to convince Francis Bacon that he knew the point of what he was painting, despite Bacon himself constantly insisting that he did not. Maybe my frustration about this and my wishes for the interviewer to ask Bacon some deeper questions skewed my perception of the rest of the book, but personally I was quite disappointed with a lot of the interview content.

Despite having said this, there is still insight to be gained from these interviews, and the book is also presented beautifully with 146 photos (although black and white) of Bacon's artwork and some of the photographs and pieces that inspired him.

Still one of the most fascinating books on the nature of creativity ever published.
This is the most recent and expanded edition of the book, which by now has become a classic work that really transcends the "interview with a famous artist" label. I own an earlier edition of the book that I have virtually memorized, so the new additions and expansions David Sylvester has included stand out for me, and amplify the original edition considerably. Whether or not you are a fan of Francis Bacon's painting, the book offers Bacon's insights (as well as Sylvester's) on the very nature of creativity, obsession, and what drives artists of any kind (painter, poet, composer, etc.) to devote their lives to their chosen pursuits. Plus, Bacon's rather sulphurous personality and opinions are captured vividly on the page, through Sylvester's obvious freindship and fascination with the man. An absolutely essential, and rather unique book...over the years, I have been amazed at how many people I have met, from all areas of the arts, who have found this work a source of inspiration and endless fascination.

Invaluable Chronicle of a Tortured Artist
"Interviews with Francis Bacon" (1987) captures remarkably on paper the tortured mind of the famous British painter (1909-1992). It belongs on the shelf of every Bacon fan and artist, regardless of medium. Nine interviews range from 1962 to 1986, Bacon's fifties through his seventies, in the form of interactive conversations with art historian David Sylvester (British, 1924-2001), ranging from Bacon's frustrated youth to his unique artistic techniques, the meaning of art to the meaning of life. Sylvester cleverly steers toward topics Bacon finds interesting, allowing him to discuss them at length. (Some of the original audio may be sampled at BBC4's website, though this book's text was heavily edited and re-manipulated from those recordings.)

The final chapter is the most biographical. Bacon, 77, recaps his life and career in detail, including his "coming out," at a time homosexuality was illegal in Britain, the relationship with his intolerant father coming to an end as a result. Overall, the book forms a clear portrait of an intellectually restless artist, demonized by the struggle to express satisfactorily the horrific images which constantly stream into his head. There is no overarching structure to the book, thus many interviews cover the same ground different ways, with illuminating results. Bacon's answers usually reinforce or embellish what was said earlier, but he sometimes answers the same question differently over time, demonstrated for example by his increasing dislike for "drink and drugs."

Some themes persist throughout. Chronically anxious and hypertensive, he can never sit still, never relax. Not religious, Bacon believes "man is an accident, a futile being, he must play out the game without reason," and life has only whatever meaning we give it, yet his haunted soul clearly identifies with the tragedy of the Crucifixion, which he considers the perfect narrative of the mythic "tragic hero," and the ultimate symbol of human devotion despite life's vicissitudes. (One famous Bacon work metaphorically depicts a hypodermic syringe stuck into the subject's arm, representing a nail stuck into the hand). He is similarly affected by the open-mouthed cry of human agony, which he expresses in perhaps his most famous and retold obsession, the many horrifying studies of Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X.

Too human, he is concerned with posterity, and denies himself the comfort of calling himself a "painter." He believes an artist must "solve the problem" of art to be a success, which to him means they must render the known through the unknown, or create the "illustrative" and "narrative" through the use of the "irrational." Discussing Picasso in this light, he says he finds surrealism "more real" than realism, probably meaning he finds surrealism more directly communicates the human condition. He also believes strongly in figuration, slaying abstract art with one devastating word: "Fashion!" He seems burdened by a lack of proper training, having started his career as an interior designer, especially when discussing the trials of his studio work, describing the way he tosses paint at the canvas, the way he tries not to work a canvas too much, potentially ruining it, and the conflicted feelings he holds toward works he has already painted, or those he is still painting.

The book usefully reproduces many works in small black-and-white images at times when the conversation turns to them, both Bacon's works and those of others, like Picasso and Rembrandt. The lack of color is entirely unnoticed, as the book focuses on the artist's psychology and opinion, which these plates illustrate perfectly. (Full-color reproduction would probably also have made the book needlessly expensive). Most remarkably, of all the photographs and self-portraits in the book, Bacon never looks directly at the viewer, illustrating most strikingly his natural over-sensitivity and tortured self-denial.

Bacon has said "art is completely a game by which man distracts himself," and "the artist must really deepen the game in order to be worth anything at all." If anyone feels Bacon "played the game" well, and "distracts" successfully his audience, or that he was "worth anything at all," then this book belongs in that person's library.

Only the Best
The best book by any artist I have read....utterly inspirational for anyone involved in creative endeavors. What's more, you don't have to agree with all of Bacon's forthright opinions. It probably helps to have seen some of his best work in color, as all the reproductions are monochrome. No matter...I have given away more cpoies of this book than I care to remember. Essential. ... Read more

Product Description
An outstanding and authoritative biography of one of Britain's greatest masters.Francis Bacon was one of the most powerful and enigmatic creative geniuses of the twentieth century. Immediately recognizable, his paintings continue to challenge interpretations and provoke controversy. Bacon was also an extraordinary personality. Generous but cruel, forthright yet manipulative, ebullient but in despair: He was the sum of his contradictions. This life, lived at extremes, was filled with achievement and triumph, misfortune and personal tragedy.

In his revised and updated edition of an already brilliant biography, Michael Peppiatt has drawn on fresh material that has become available in the sixteen years since the artist’s death. Most important, he includes confidential material given to him by Bacon but omitted from the first edition. Francis Bacon derives from the hundreds of occasions Bacon and Peppiatt sat conversing, often late into the night, over many years, and particularly when Bacon was working in Paris. We are also given insight into Bacon’s intimate relationships, his artistic convictions and views on life, as well as his often acerbic comments on his contemporaries. 29 b&w illustrationsAmazon.com Review
This frank portrait of Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon(1909-92) contains enough juicy details about his lurid sex life andhard partying to satisfy even the most avid consumers of art-worldgossip. But art critic Michael Peppiatt, who knew Bacon personally,also provides insightful analyses of his paintings and the nerve theiranguished subject matter and technique struck in the uneasy yearsfollowing World War II. In addition, Peppiatt illuminates theautobiographical roots of powerful works such as Pope I,Three Studies for a Crucifixion, and In Memory of GeorgeDyer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The Best Biography ofBacon
If one is searching for a "Life" of F. Bacon, this is the one to read. It has been revised and updated from the original hardcover edition, which was praised when it first appeared. Peppiatt knew Bacon during the later periods of the painter's life. There are many descriptions of first-hand experiences. Among critical studies focusing on Bacon, three writers who knew Bacon during his lifetime are: John Russell (Thames & Hudson), David Sylvester (interview collections) and Michel Leiris (Rizzoli, 1983 in English translation). All three are excellent.

Able biographical accompaniment to paintings
Read this revised edition of Peppiatt's biography of Francis Bacon while attending frequently the exhibition of the latter's work at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. It provides a necessary complement to the paintings which are, apparently, deliberately wrapped in a shroud of mystery. For the average reader without access to a representative sample of Bacon's work, I strongly urge purchase, at the least, of one of the inexpensive books with good reproductions. Peppiatt's book is sparsely illustrated in black and white nullifying the attempt to provide the reader with a sense of what created theimpact of his work and what emerged from the experiences of the book's leading character.
The authors close relationship with the very much senior painter endows the book with the strength of such familiarity...and with its weakness. No question that he believes in the "greatness" of the painter nor that he accepts the impact that Bacon clearly had upon him as the common impact he had upon others. Nevertheless, forewarned by the author himself, the reader can make due allowances in reading so as to benefitfrom the intimacy out of which the portrait emerges while retaining the necessary objectivity to know that the authors views are not representative of more critical approaches both to the person and the art.
In short, a fine work to have in hand as one seeks to grasp one of the most financially and critically acclaimed of near contemporary artists.There is a bit too much of the adulatory rhetoric, "great" and "masterpiece" for my taste but this is a common failing of art historians (among others). The book is clearly written and the evidence sufficiently diversified to allow the reader to make some preliminary judgments of the man and his work. Needless to say, the violent imagery of the paintings and homosexuality (most of Bacon's life was led before it became "Gay") of the life need elicit no evaluative response from the reader. As Bacon would no doubt assert, take it or leave it, but retain the right to condemn or condone in terms ofone's own vision.

One Of The Best Written Biographies Ever!
I wish my late fiance (British) had lived to see me delving into one of his favorite artists, Francis Bacon.He would be stunned at my complete turn-around. Until recently, anything Francis Bacon was a total turn-off. His work, anything about him.Then I saw LOVE IS THE DEVIL and cannot get enough information about this brilliant but demon-driven man. This book is so intelligently and sympathetically written.It is a rather extensive book that I hated to put down. The author must have interviewed every person Bacon had known since childhood to get the background he covers. Family, nanny (who played an enormous role in his childhood and adulthood), the men, the women, the enemies, the friends, his work, his feelings about his work. I bought my copy from amazon.com but it came from the UK in no time. If you have any desire to learn anything about the artist (who was born 100 years ago this year), I suggest you get a copy immediately before it is out of print.I am hoping that the retrospective of his work that is supposed to take place this year in NYC will generate enough interest that these books will become readily available again.See LOVE IS THE DEVIL (with Derek Jacobi & Daniel Craig) and then read this book.This book defies the myth that Bacon met George Dyer when he fell from his skylight one night to rob him.Farson's book says this is the story he always heard. It is the first scene in the film. But Peppiatt claims they met in a bar.I rather prefer the falling from the skylight version myself.Once you have read Farson and Peppiatt's books, get 7 REECE MEWS FRANCIS BACON'S STUDIO. A small, lovely color photography book of his studio after his death. You have to read that one with a magnifying glass so that you don't miss a single item on the page.Well worth the trouble.Graham would be so proud of me! Finally, I understand what all the fuss was about.

Anatomy of an enigma
Dear readers,

- Have read many biographies
- This rates as one of the best
- The ultimate Bacon biography
- It will shock you
- Peppiatt has captured Bacon to a tee
- Highly recommend
- It will allow you to enter the mind of probably the greatest artist of our generation

Under the carpet view
Michael Peppiatt has resources for his book that defy belief.Francis Bacon was indeed an enigmatic person and artist and I suppose that the lurid details of his existence may shed some light on the paintings.But not, I think, to the degree that the author would have us believe.Some of the most glorious works of art have been created by personalities who border on beastial (Richard Wagner, Diego Rivera, Rodin et al) and so I suppose that knowing that Bacon was night gutter tramp may illuminate some of his portaits.The book does add to the literature on Bacon by introducing a number a fascinating photographs and for the reader who needs to know it all, well here is that cluttered closet. ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon’s style was so personal and distinctive that his influence lay more in the intensity of his commitment to art itself than in any direct stylistic legacy. The British artist developed a way of portraying the human body that was unique in the history of painting—usually in isolation, at moments of extreme tension or even pain, distorted like figures from a fantastical nightmare. He remains a towering example to those dedicated to the depiction of the human figure. In addition to 250 full-color plates, this publication also reveals Bacon’s low-art inspirations, including magazine tear sheets, photographs, and imagery from films. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

NO fat Bacon
the Francis Bacon book edited by Gale and Stephens is full of insights, images and information I didn't know about Francis Bacon.The text is well organized and recommended for the beginning seeking knowledge about Bacon.The Book makes Bacon accessible to non-art historians and enough insider for art groupies.

A great artist, an average (sometimes pretentious) book
This is the catalogue for the current exhibition held at the Tate gallery in London (the first major retrospective on the artist in England since 1985) and which will later go to the Prado in Madrid and the Met in NYC.

The book starts with six essays that, in a way, sum up everything that has been written or said about Bacon over the past fifty years.

The first, entitled "On the margin of the impossible", attempts to show how Bacon's ambition (which was to finish either "at the National Gallery or in the dustbin") and creative process (towards paintings that are neither abstract nor figurative, but hover between both forms of art to reach a new, deeper reality than that of the mere representational figure)make him difficult to pigeonhole in a classical history of movements in modern art.

The second essay dwells on the artist's critical reception during and after his lifetime and shows how European critics were quick to grasp the importance of the artist whereasAmericans were much slower (Bacon's reputation in the US only started to grow in the 1960's, even though the Moma had been the first museum to buy one of his paintings in 1946). Over the years, the names of John Russell, David Sylvester, Michel Leiris, Gilles Deleuze and Michael Peppiatt stand out as major proponents of Bacon's art.

The third essay studies Bacon's paintings as such, emphasizing the problems of interpretation, explaining their sources and stressing the importance of chance in the creative process (what Deleuze and Bacon himself used to call "the accident", a term also present in the art ofphotography, so important to Bacon).

The fourth essay dwells on the importance of film (whether documentary or fiction)in Bacon's work.

The fifth essay studies the importance of male and physique magazines as inspirational material and, in this respect, draws a comparison between Bacon's and Keith Vaughan's art, both artists (without knowing each other personally)revealing - according to the author of this essay - many common traits (notably in the relationships they had with their respective lovers).

The last essay specifically deals with Bacon's iconography, the sources and references that abound in all his paintings, most of them discovered in his studio at the time of his death and which have prompted a complete reassessment of his work.

After this somewhat cumbersome start comes the catalogue itself, divided into eight themes (like "crucifixion", "portrait", "zone", "crisis", "late", etc)each one gathering a group of paintings around it.

On the whole, this book is sometimes interesting to read (and sometimes less so, especially in the fifth essay which does not add anything to the literature on the artist: comparing somewhat pompously Bacon to a minor British artist whose only realpoint in common with him was his homosexuality ...)but disappointing as far as the quality of the reproductions is concerned, with very few close-ups of details.

I own more than a dozen books on Bacon and this one qualifies as average, both for the text and the reproductions.

... Read more

Product Description
One of the most powerful painters of our age, Francis Bacon lived and worked for the last thirty years of his life in a modest building in London's South Kensington. After he died in 1992, access was granted to award-winning photographer Perry Ogden to work undisturbed for days on end to produce this riveting record of the house and its contents. In the studio itself, thirty years of inspired artistic endeavor had accumulated unchecked: the slashed and discarded canvases scattered across the floor; the brushes, rags, and tins encrusted with paint; the doors and walls used as impromptu palettes; the piles of photographs of friends and models; the crumpled and torn pages of magazines and books that served as a stimulus for Bacon's work; the notes, sketches, and ideas for paintings jotted down and then cast aside; the last unfinished self-portrait on the easel. For some of those close to Bacon, the studio was a heroic statement, a work of art in its own right, secretly constructed over many years to distill and give form to his aesthetic intentions. Now in this astonishing book we are invited to take a privileged look around this private space, to become intimate witnesses to the amazing conditions in which Bacon lived and worked, to gain unrivaled insights into how, why, and what he painted. 60 color photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Plowing through the glorious debris
If the idea of a neat, orderly artist's studio with everything in Tupperware tubs makes you twitch; this book is for you. The photos seem to capture the studio in a state of divine chaos, nearly ankle-deep with art supplies, visual reference material, beloved and well-used books, paint-splattered walls, a grimey encrusted radiator.The place absolutely radiates activity, urgency, and exploration.Given that most of us cannot parade through the studios of our favorite artists, a book like this is the next best thing.As I flipped through the pages, I felt the crustiness of the surfaces, I caught the energy of the ideas, and almost felt I could sniff the scent of solvents and paints.
I just completed a book about artist's studios and creative workspaces ("Art-Making & Studio Spaces" by Rockport/Quarry)and was intent on showing studios "as is".Somehow, viewing the places where art "happens" (including all the messes, oddities, and eccentricities) seems like an important part of revealing the process."7 Reece Mews" is a wonderful book, and greatly added to the overall body of work, showing how vital and important artist's workspaces are. Highly recommended!

'Finding Order in Chaos': The Creative Space of Francis Bacon
Views of the studio at 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington, London, where Francis Bacon spent the last thirty years of his life from 1961 - 1992, inform us of many aspects of Bacon's life and art.The studio is notorious among artists' studios in that it is nearly non-navigable, so strew are the walls and floors and easels with the memorabilia and photos, drawings and articles that ultimately resulted in some of the most exciting art created in the 20th Century.

This very fine book represents a catalogue of the project to move Bacon's studio intact to Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin where the curators have seized on documenting every tube, brush, tossed away sketch, collaged photos, small reproductions of famous artists' works (such as the Velasquez popes), bits of cloth and canvas, andphotos of his models, his lovers, and his associates - a daunting task but one so important that it takes this book to define.

Richly photographed by Perry Ogden who manages to capture the atmosphere of claustrophobia that pervades the studio, this book is indispensable to the scholars who find Bacon's visual influences as important as his paintings.The writing that accompanies this photographic essay is highly informative and immensely readable: Gallery Director Barbara Dawson offers a probing insightful examination of Bacon's personal and artistic history in 'Francis Bacon's Studio: A Stimulating Solitude' and the Curator of the Francis Bacon Collection essays 'Finding order in chaos: Francis Bacon's Studio contents'.

Though the book is small (61 pages) it is of utmost importance to those fascinated with the expressionist art of Bacon.An added bonus is a brief but thorough Timeline of Bacon's life.Highly Recommended.Grady Harp, January 06

Essential coda
An unusual, beautiful little book for the shelves of Francis Bacon fans. The photographs are beautiful, exhaustively document this legendary, but little known space, and have a haunting quality that complements other Bacon monographs. One senses the vibrancy of the artist's life, and only then the realization that, but for the fact he is deceased, the reader would not be holding this book and having this "privileged" view. Very strange! ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a genuine midwife of modernity. He was one of the first thinkers to visualize a future which would be guided by a cooperative science-based vision of bettering human welfare. In this the first critical edition of his greatest philosophical work since the nineteenth-century, we find facing-page Latin translations and a thorough and detailed Introduction to the text. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Good art and good writing
A great introduction to the paintings of Francis Bacon. Ficacci's writing is intelligent and is an added bonus to the pleasure of looking at Francis Bacon's paintings.

The horror
What else could a genius that lived through the time he did create that would offer to the world a piece of his soul? Not abstract, not Picasso, not anything but a mix of all in a way that describes what man can do to man. Nothing to live for but the moment and the moment is full of horror - most of the time.

3 to 4 stars. Up for you to decide.
This book would get a 5 star if instead of Mr. Ficacci writtings, the wholle page would show the reproduction only. Mr. Ficacci whom I couldn't get no indication on who he is, what he does and mainly why was he choosen to comment on Bacon's work, is the weaker part of this book, but not the only.

His comentaries are exorbitants and too prolixic. They are on a wholle very subjective and kind-of-intellectual-like. Not ground based and boring to say the least..

The other drawback might be ( not for me ) that 1/3 of the reproductions , maybe more, are about 1/12 the size of the page, various triptics for instance. Another third about 1/4, and the remain the size of the page (23*18cm)

There is a lot of reproductions, all in colour, samples of his best known and others least known works. Id say 100 counting each triptic as 3.

Comparing with other Taschen publications on painters this is the only book, as far as I know, that they dont print pictures across pages over the bind.

Very good purchase for the price.
.

Meet Francis Bacon
I found this book very, very good for those wishing "to meet" the artist as I did. I didn't know anything about Bacon before but had strong decision to explore his paintings and himself as an artist. This book serve well for this purpose.
It contains many illustrations, all in color but it's not all his paintings. Book covers everything mainly in chronological manner, gives overall picture of Bacon's life journey.
Book is very good, maybe even best start for exploring Bacon's art. After that it's easy to orientate and dive deeper. And besides, Taschen series are really known for their good quality, at least in my mind.
Personally me, I started to explore Bacon's art with exactly this book and it very impressed me. In Bacon's art I found something inspirational for myself. Taking into account Bacon art's specific features this book and Bacon art could
be strongly suggested for animators, game developers, painters, concept artists who's into horror genre. But, by Bacon's own words:"I am not seeing any horror in my pictures"!

Great collection, but poorly written
This book contains a superb range of beautifully printed Bacon pieces in full colour, and at a very modest price. However, the drawback of this book is the writings of Luigi Ficacci. His essays on Bacon are excruciating to read and immensely difficult to follow. It's like being at an art gallery and overhearing pretentious art-wannabes trying to outdo each other with big words and obscure psychoanalytical references.

So if you're looking for a book containing a comprehensive collection of artwork by Francis Bacon, this is an excellent and affordable collection. However, if you're looking for insight into this fascinating artist, try "Interviews with Francis Bacon" by David Sylvester, or "Bacon" by Ediciones Poligrafa. ... Read more

Product Description
Three prominent Bacon scholars shed light on the painter's private life and on his working methods that he was particularly secretive about. 177 illustrations, 112 in full color.Amazon.com Review
This book accompanies the traveling retrospective thatinaugurated the newly reopened Yale Center for British Art in January1999. Francis Bacon (1909-1992), the eminent British painter known forhis large, colorful, and grotesque paintings of the human body, wasvery controlling of what was written about his work during hislifetime; this book marks the first time that each painting isindividually discussed in print. Included in the book are essays thatprovide great insight into Bacon's life and personality. Especiallyrevealing is an essay by Michael Peppiatt, Bacon's close friend andbiographer (he wrote Francis Bacon: Anatomy ofan Enigma). Bacon lived a life of heavy drinking, gambling,and socializing, and Peppiatt discusses this lifestyle in relation tothe work: "Bacon himself pretended he painted particularly well with ahangover. 'My mind simply crackles with electricity after one of thoseevenings.'"

Along with beautiful reproductions of the paintings are somephotographs of Bacon's studio, which is astounding in its filth. Thefloor is littered with various detritus; brushes and paint tubes areeverywhere. Bacon's intensity is as evident in these studio shots asin the paintings with contorted figures and grimacing, bruise-coloredfaces. You can practically watch the human body decay in front of youreyes. --Jennifer Cohen ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

francis bacon is back from the grave
i love that francis bacon is credited in the title above as 'illustrator" in dennis farr's little retrospective.bacon who sought to avoid illustration in his paintings by creating a reality, often relying somewhat on chance, that if inaccurate was in his mind 'greater' than the truth.this taken from a very moving quote from van gogh, whose letters and paintings francis studied closely.the reverse landscape in question is in fact reversed - its like an error card.otherwise the text is intelligent and the body of work is well chosen but there are so many bacon paintings its hard to find a comprehensive publication.

Magnum Opus
Well, here it all is - the paintings, the analysis of the person, the milieu that aided in the production of this prodigious artist, brilliant essays that go further than predessors into the hows and whys of Francis Bacon - the much anticipated Retrospective book and exhibition.One of the finest aspects of this book is the placement of descriptions of the background and the implications of each painting adjacent to the work.No search party needed here.If only as much attention to detail would have been spent on the four color separations of the works then this would truly have been the definitive work about one of the most exciting painters of the last century...AND chronicler of the disintegration of society and mentality brought about by the dissecting sciences.

A Bacon Treasure
If you want to add an extraordinary book to your library, this is the one to buy. Francis Bacon's works, and words, are presented in a profoundly moving volume,with exquisite reproductions and intelligent essays bycurators and friends.

Bacon's haunting, provocative creatures writhe withintense agony. They reflect an inborn fatality and atheism, and arerelentless in their unflinching starkness of vision. He asks no mercy,gives no quarter, and stubbornly refuses to soften the nihilism of hisviews.

If you can't afford one of his canvases, this book is an admirablesubstitute.

A flawed masterpiece?
At first glance, this catalog is a marvel--heavy paper stock, literate commentary. On closer examination, however, you'll note that in several cases, the colour plates do not reflect the paintings' reality. To wit, theLucien Freud triptych, where the background color field's yellow issubstantially different from the work as viewed in the Retrospective. Thisproblem appears in several other plates. But the worst lapse is in theMorrocan landscape (title escapes me at the moment). That catalog image isactually REVERSED, or 'flopped' in photo terms.Note the red in theforeground is on the wrong side of the painting. How could Abrams makessuch a serious error? For a volume costing $60, no less. Anyone who has thegood fortune to view this magnificent exhibit will see the problems.

An excellent overview of the artists' work.
What I found most appealing about this retrospective (and by extension, the exhibition that it catalogs) is the great variety of material that is covered.In many collections of Bacon's work, certain (generally earlier)facets of his ouvre (the wild animals, the paintings of Van Gogh, etc) areglossed over in favor of others (the Crucifixions, his output during the60's, the portraits of George Dyer, etc).This retrospective, however,gives an amazingly well-balanced view of the artist's career.

Even thoughsome of Bacon's "major" paintings, like "Painting(1946)" and "Study After Velazquez's Portrait of Pope InnocentX" are not included, this is more than made up for by the sheervariety of the material that has been covered.The commentary thataccompanies the paintings is good, and while not extensive, thebiographical information and snippets of interviews are very compelling. Anyone with an appreciation for Bacon's work should have this book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

a rare insight into the life of a painter
I've been a painter now for over 20 years and very rarely have I come across the kind of insight and intelligence demonstrated in this wonderful book. For some reason at art school I avoided Deleuze but I'm glad I found him at what is probably the right time for me and my development as a painter.

I also read this book after seeing the recent Bacon retrospective at Tate Britain and its words resonated all the more clearly for this. As a discussion on the life and work of Bacon I feel it isinsightful if not biographically informative (but that's not really the aim or purpose here), but Deleuze goes much further than this. At its best it offers a series of interpretive, intellectual models of analysis for artists. Like Bergson before him, Deleuze offers a non prescriptive and discursive manual for others to spring from. It manages to confront that terrible old dichotomy of theory versus practice by creating a performative space in written language that has a qualitative relationship to the stuff of paint, bodily movement, smell and touch.

A must have book, not just for painters but for anyone interested in visual art and philosophy. It's also a very good introduction to the work of one the 20th century's greatest thinkers

modernist polemics
this is an excellent book for any artist or intellectual interested in modern art. Deleuze understands the canvas better than bacon,creating powerful justifications for the modern approach to art .
though people criticize him for unintelligablethinking,i feel it is more appropriate to say deleuze wages a war on the cliche, which includes our habitual methods ofthinking...to understand deleuze is to graduate from the sterile plane of habitual thought and enter a zone of creativity ..a zone that deleuze recognizes as the arena of art..

Cerebral Bacon
Gilles Deleuze is one of France's most important philosophers, and in that role he has influenced many branches of the arts with his scholarly investigation of the subjects he chooses to investigate.

Deleuze here writes about the 'sensational' aspects of Francis Bacon's art, art which he knows well, living with several of Bacon's works in his home.His exploration of the inspiration of Bacon's various trademark strokes and subjects grows naturally out of his applying philosophical musings on visual subjects: this book is a thesis on aesthetics for which Bacon is simply but powerfully the nidus.

Though the book was written in 1981, it remains one of the more fascinating books on aesthetics and the influences on Bacon's work along with sidebars on music, film, and writing that make the work more of an informed 'novel' than simply the intellectual volume it is.For this reader the addition of more visuals would have made more of an impact, but the writing (or translation from the French!) is so seethingly seductive that soon the visuals would become secondary.This is a tough read but a most important one.Grady Harp, July 06

new dimension about the will to knowledge
in this book, deleuze demonstrates that modern knowledge is no longer powered by dialectics or rationale, but by human sensuality. bacon's work is a good example to show that how art owns the ability to go beyonddiscourses. ... Read more

Product Description
A survey of the life and art of the twentieth-century British painter explains his surrealistic, disturbing treatment of the human face and figure, through photographs, Bacon's own statements, and a multitude of reproductions of his work. Original." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Small is Large for Bacon
This paperback book on the great British painter Francis Bacon is invaluable. Though small in size, there is a wealth of materials presented - portions of the many interesting interviews conducted with him over the years, a great amount of documentary photographs of Bacon, his works, his studio and his friends, including many color reproductions of his paintings. Also helpful to the reader is that the sizes of the paintings are given in both inches and cm,and that even the locations of the paintings in museums and private collections today are given.
I though I knew much about Francis Bacon, but the information on his working methods was new to me. Even his use of corduroy cloth to make certain effects on the surfaces of his paintings. I ended up buying three copies of this book. One for me and two for my artist friends.

Beautifully produced, very accessible portrait of the artist
This is a beautifullyproduced little book, full of excellentreproductions and elaborate pull-outs of Bacon's triptychs which givegreater scope for appreciation than more conventional formats allow. Domino's text initially seems more simplistic than simple, discussing theartist's life, work, methods and themes very accessibly and predictably,but you end up with a clear sense of the art and its mechanics which mighthave been obscured in more technical books.It is as frustratinglyahistorical as Bacon's paintings though, and this book (as well as a recentvisit to teh Dublin retrospective) tends to confirm my suspicions thatBacon was not as great as we all once thought.The book appends a sectioncalled 'Documents', full of reminiscences from acquaintances, and analysesby the likes of Gilles Deleuze.

Compact but concise
Christophe Domino has managed to distill a body of work into a near pocket-sized edition, but with amamzing accuracy and attention to detail. As an admirer of Bacon's work and ideas, it is obvious that a book likethis would not have been possible without the seminal work of writers DavidSylvester and Michael Peppiatt respectively, but it is very well done nonethe less. From background information on the artist to one of the mostsuprising collection of photographic references available to date, theauthor does an outstanding job of doing with this book what most bookstwice this size struggle with. This book is highly recommended for anyonewho is curious about the work of Francis Bacon, or simply as an amazing andconcise review of facts for those who are already aware of the genius ofthe "greatest living (now deceased) painter". ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
An account of the wild life of the celebrated English painter covers his childhood in Dublin; his years of gambling, drinking, and petty thievery; and the enormous genius expressed in his art. 12,500 first printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I Should Have Read This Book First!
I come to the Francis Bacon table very late in life. This year, 2009, marks his 100th birthday.

I remember the first time I saw a Bacon painting.I was totally shocked. Over the years I have not read about him nor cared.A few months ago I came across the British film, LOVE IS THE DEVIL.Rented it, loved it.Really wanted to get to know this artist. Derek Jacobi IS Francis Bacon. What a performance.You must see it for yourself. A young Daniel Craig plays his lover, George.Also an astonishing performance.

That said, I should have read this book before I watched the film.It would have made everything crystal clear for me.The author was a friend of Mr. Bacon over the years and knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. There are some nice personal photos of the artist and his friends, boyfriends.And he did have interesting friends and boyfriends!

His art still bothers me for the same reasons it bothers others.He is showing us our dark side.The side of ourselves we would rather not see or deal with.I have come to this conclusion after finally admitting to myself that his artwork is genius.There will be a large retrospective here in NYC this year of his work.I shall be attending it, I assure you.

I re-watched LOVE IS THE DEVIL last night and, because of this book, it meant so much more to me as I watched it unfold.The author obviously wishes he and Mr. Bacon had been closer in the end, but one of Bacon's men friends informed Mr. Bacon that Mr. Farson was writing this book and it deeply upset him.At one time Bacon had agreed to help Mr. Farson write a book of his life, but then changed his mind.So you can imagine how Mr. Bacon felt when he learned his friend had gone behind his back to a publisher and was writing it anyway.

This book is not about his art.It is about the artist.His early childhood will shock you.What his father did to him and had done to him is beyond child abuse.It made Francis Bacon who he became.We really don't know what happens in a person's life that really makes them tick, do we?Mr. Farson opens many doors to Bacon's mind.Some, perhaps, that should have been left closed.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to understand Bacon, his art and his life.It will set you on the right path to learning everything you need to know.I am sure I will be re-reading this book over the years. Buy one before they go out of print or become so expensive you can't afford a copy. ... Read more

Product Description
The painting of Francis Bacon (1909-1992) defines the shattered self-image of Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War, and his wracked human figures are now basic to the twentieth century's visual lexicon. Clearing away all moral scaffolding, Bacon made room for what he called "the brutality of fact" to implode onto his canvases, paring back his subjects to animal function and bloodlust. In Bacon the figure is almost always isolated and pitched against an unforgiving interior lit only by a bare light bulb (one could write an interesting history of the light bulb in art, tracking its trajectory from, say, Van Gogh to Vuillard's lamplight, to the desolate hanging bulbs of Bacon and Philip Guston). Francis Bacon had few better critics of his work than himself--as witnessed in this superb statement of intent to David Sylvester: "What I want to do is distort the thing far beyond the appearance, but in the distortion to bring it back to a recording of the appearance." But one of the few writers whose sensibility he trusted was the French author Michel Leiris. Leiris shared Bacon's feel for nerve-end acuity in art, as his great autobiography Manhood attests, and with Bacon's sanction, wrote the essay for Poligrafa's landmark monograph of 1987, which also included a selection of 240 key paintings made by Bacon himself. That volume, an essential text for Bacon fans and scholars, is here revised and reprinted for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Francis Bacon, full face and in profile
Though many reviewers and critics of this new edition of a 1983 book published in Spanish by the same name and by the same author are angry with the presentation of the Bacon paintings included, the simple fact that Michel Leiris' fine essay on Bacon, possibly the finest ever written, is once again available to the public more than makes up for the quality of the reproductions of the art.Leiris was in many ways Bacon's confidant, a man and a writer with whom Bacon shared his inner most feelings and life and stimuli for the paintings he created.Leiris writes with a quiet authority, with an immensely readable style, and offers more information about the real Francis Bacon than others - and the list of Bacon authorities grows all the time.

In this hardcover edition there is a quotation as a frontispiece that bears repeating.Georg Büchner: 'In everything I demand that there should be life, the possibility of existence, and then all is well; we are not then called upon to ask whether the work is beautiful or ugly.The feeling that what has been created has life comes before either consideration and is the only criterion in matters of art.'This, from the creator of 'Woyzeck'.After Leiris elegant essay the book contains a large number of Bacon's canvases.Even with less than perfect reproduction these works seem to take on new meaning, reflecting the information in Leiris' words.

This particular reincarnation of the 1983 book includes a full chronology of Bacon's life, a list of all the interviews recorded and a very complete bibliography that includes catalogues from exhibitions and an updated listing of all the public collections of the artist's works.Despite the flaws of production this book is well worth owning, especially since the Leiris essay is not otherwise available.Grady Harp, July 09

this book should be recalled
I absolutely agree with Kevin J. Mcfarland's comment: the reproductions in this book are of a very shoddy quality. A lot - not all of them but probably more than half - are out of focus (they honestly seem like blown-up copies of the images in the original). The color is also quite bad. Stay away from this book unless you're buying it for the essay. And publisher - this is an embarrassment.

Get the original folks!
Yes its true, this a reprint of a much more impressive book....and without reservation get that one, not this foggy weak shadow of the original.When I opened the package containing this book I was excited about a supposed new and improved Bacon book , minutes later the book was back in the package and returned. This reprint is NOT AS GOOD AS ITS ORIGINAL, I would say the print job is quite muddy compared to the 1983 version...so buy that one, it is still available...this is solid advice from a serious Bacon enthusiast, heed it .

A different slant
John Russell wrote this "biography" while Francis Bacon was very much alive and tends to emphasize the influences on Bacon's work more from an environmental standpoint than an art historian view.But to jump into Bacon's raucous life "in medias res" is a gift that now can be savoured, like picking the grapes off the vines that in years to come will become a fine vintage wine.A diversion, and only in black and white reproductions, but a rather important comment in retrospect.

Seek this Bacon volume!
This book on Francis Bacon is out of print but the good people at Amazon.com can help you find it.And if you love Francis Bacon then this book is a MUST for your library. Well written and gorgeous to view, this book more than most shows the less known works of the British genius of psychologically laden painting.The handsome book was a catalogue for the Smithsonian Institution exhibition in 1989 and 1990, before Bacon died. As for a collection of the master's best, look no further. ... Read more

Product Description
Published for the exhibition in Milan between March 4th and June 29th, 2008, this catalog offers a selection of approximately sixty works by Bacon. The collection spans his works from his first paintings in the 1930s, which reveal how early he was attracted to a figure’s deformation and ambiguity, to his late triptychs, in which the artist’s existential torment seems to move towards a suffered serenity. This publication includes important contributions from leading international scholars as well as technical information on all the exhibition works. Artworks are gathered from such prestigious museums as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Birmingham Museum, the Sara Hilden Museum in Tampere, the Fondazione Beyeler in Basel, the Museo de Arte Contemporanea in Caracas, the Toyota Municipal Museum in Aichi, and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The publication also includes a series of documents—drawings, photographs, and works on paper such as collages and retouched photographs—from the Dublin City Gallery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Definitive Francis Bacon Anthology
Francis Bacon remains one of the more fascinating artists of our time, and while many important, elegant, erudite and valuable books have been written about this enigmatic man, this Anthology simply titled BACON, outshines them all. Yes, it is essentially a museum catalogue for a major exhibition in Milan in 2008, but it is far more than a competent catalogue.

There is little about Francis Bacon that has not been addressed in previous books, at times very well indeed, so the reader should not expect to uncover much new imagery here. What makes this book so very impressive is the quality: the four essays investigating Bacon's past, his world views, his personal life, his impact on 20th century art as written by Fabrice Hergott, Christoph Heinrich, Jean Louis Schefer, and editor Rudy Chiappini are immensely readable and learned; the uncovering of the valuable secrets of Bacon's Dublin Studio by Barbara Dawson, the section of works on paper by Luciano Caprile in addition to the chronology constructed by Gaia Regazzoni are stylish and accurate: the quality of reproductions of the paintings in the book are some of the richest four color separation images available.

Many paintings illustrated in this anthology that are less well known to the general public than the famous triptychs and the Pope series, and to see these lesser known works in such vivid color is remarkable. For this reader the collection of drawings and photomontages that served as the nidus for Bacon's imagination and resultant paintings is the best available and these are presented in such a way that Bacon's art is more approachable than other books have attempted. Recommended without reservation, no matter how many other volumes about this important artist are in the library!Grady Harp, January 09

Flesh and chaos are the reality of our existence
This book is the catalogue for a recent Bacon exhibition held at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, Italy.

It is divided into four initial essays, the first studying the force and energy that exhude from Bacon's paintings (the violent presence of the flesh, the obsession with life, "the drama of the existencial experience"), the second dwelling on Bacon's creative process, the sources and references he used (contrary to what was formerly believed and to what the artist wanted us to believe, he left little space to chance in his works), the third focusing on his small portraits as embodiements of Bacon's ideas of what art should be (key words here are "energy" and "force")and the fourth attempting an explanation of what these paintings, through their violence and crudeness, represent (what kind of reality, beyond the mere dissolving image of the human body). This last chapter is buttressed by many quotations from Bacon's famous interviews with David Sylvester where he stresses the crude truth that, above all, the human body is "meat, a river of flesh".

Then comes the main asset of this book: the reproductions of the works. I own more than a dozen books on Bacon and, in my opinion, this one is the best as far as the quality of reproductions is concerned. They are simply outstanding and cannot be more faithful to the originals. All in full color (which is crucial when you are dealing with Bacon, who was one of the greatest colorists in XXth century art)they are also numerous.

The last part of the book is especially interesting in that it focuses on Bacon's studio (faithfully reconstituted at Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane in Ireland) and everything that was found in it after his death. Photos of the studio and reproductions of sketches, torn photographs, well-thumbed books and odds and ends that used to strew the studio floor are especially revealing of the importance of what the artist called "the chaos" in his creative process.

A high-quality book which I strongly recommend. ... Read more

Product Description
"Strikingly produced and limpidly written."—Library Journal

Francis Bacon famously found inspiration in photographs, film stills, and mass-media imagery. In Camera, a bravura accomplishment of original research, reveals how these new media informed some of Bacon's most important paintings and triggered turning points in his stylistic development.

Martin Harrison, who was granted privileged and unparalleled access to unpublished material from the archives of the Bacon estate, provides a new under-standing of the thought processes and working methods of the creator of one of the most compelling bodies of work in twentieth-century art. Throughout the book, sharp analysis leads to startling insights into this complex, tortured, and hugely creative artist and into the unique iconography of his art. With the aid of over 270 superb illustrations (200 in color), including a broad range of source images and documents, the book addresses important questions about Bacon's practice and reassesses key paintings to shed new light on his life and work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A tool for artist looking at Francis Bacon
This book is an essential tool to better understand the process in which Francis Bacon produced his master works. As an artist, this book demystifies the painter while testifying his genius.

A Thoroughly Investigated Aspect of the Genius of Francis Bacon
It seems the number of books about British artist Francis Bacon, both biography and art monograph, grows each year, an indication of just how important this innovative and strange painter is in the spectrum of art history.IN CAMERA FRANCIS BACON: PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND THE PRACTIVE OF PAINTING is an erudite and fascinating work that opens previously sealed windows into the dark life and immensely controversial creativity of this daring genius.

Bacon, unlike most artists of his time and even of the present, had no problems discussing the fact that he utilized the art of photography in gathering information and inspiration for his huge canvases.Bacon saw the camera as a ready resource of information from which products he then could study, cut and paste, distort and wildly mix as the impetus of his own painted creations. But the extent to which Bacon immersed himself in the images he collected and deposited in the ungainly mess of his studio at 7 Reece Mews is now brought to light by author Martin Harrison.

Harrison not only understands photography's history and impact, he also understands painting.He wisely interviewed Bacon's last lover and inheritor of Bacon's estate until his death, John Edwards, and through Edwards' auspices Harrison gained access to many of the never before seen images that grace this book. Here are sketches, manipulated and notated photographs, photographic images of some of Bacon's destroyed canvases and plates of drawings and paintings not included elsewhere, making this volume of information invaluable to the Bacon devotees, no matter the number of volumes on their library shelves!

Harrison writes with the style of the scholar he is and at times the writing itself is rather dry and academic.But if the reader perseveres these thick passages of documentation, the reward is new knowledge of just how Bacon utilized photos, newsprint snaps, movies, and all manner of the camera's output to gain the spark of brilliance that resulted in his amazing output.The book is on the finest paper and is filled with superb reproductions of the photographic stimuli and the resultant paintings.This is an invaluable volume for the study of Bacon's art.Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 06

A fascinating exploration of photography and painting
"In Camera" is one of the most interesting books on Francis Bacon, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, ever published for several reasons: First, it takes good advantage of the meanwhile fairly large array of books, catalogs and articles which have been published on Bacon. Second, Harrison had access to materials, mainly photographs that have not been published before. Third, he was able to interview several persons close to Bacon, notably John Edwards, Bacon's last companion. Fourth, and most importantly, the book has a clear thesis that the author is able to present convincingly. It is Harrison's position that Bacon used mainly photographs either taken by photographers by his request or from books and magazines to the effect that they: "triggered decisive turning points in his stylistic development" (from book jacket).

In five chapters Harrison explores different type of media and images and how these affected Bacon's painting: Motion pictures, Interior Design, different artists such as Picasso and Michelangelo, the photography of Eadweard Muybridge, and the photographers that he hired to take photographs for him such as Deakin and Edwards. From the thousands of objects found in Bacon's studio at his death many were photographs from the above mentioned sources, but also taken from magazines and torn from books. Of these many had paint splatters and finger smudges in paint proving that Bacon used these for his paintings. A cut out photo of George Dyer, Bacon's lover from the 60's until his suicide in 1971 was even used as a template for several paintings. For many paintings Harrison shows the painting and the image or photograph that it was based on side by side. For example the Triptych (1991) used a front cover of "The Correspondent Magazine", a Muybridge photograph of mane wrestling, and a photo of Bacon. The book has over 270 excellent illustrations, of which at least 100 I saw for the first time and I own an extensive collection of Bacon books and catalogs.

The fact that Bacon used other images for inspiration does not mean that he merely copied these. One look at Bacon's paintings will prove that this is not the case. It is well-known that Bacon did not use models for his paintings and the images acted as catalysts for Bacon triggering other images, emotions or memories which then manifested themselves in his extraordinary paintings. Bacon was always reluctant to discuss the meaning of his paintings, insisting that they had none. Harrison goes farther than any book since the Sylvester interviews in proving that this is not the case and that the paintings were highly personal. The following two quotes from the end of the book are in my opinion right on the mark:

"..it should be remembered that most of Bacon's paintingswere explorations of selfhood". (p.228)

"He conveyed his inner life without compromise, but in code, in his paintings." (p.229)

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Bacon's art and Bacon the artist and man. The book is well presented, written and organized and the many images are fascinating. Though published by Thames & Hudson, it is printed and bound by Steidl an excellent German printer.

For more information on books about Francis Bacon, please see the listmania list I compiled. Readers are also welcome to email me for more information on Bacon books and web sites.

Review by Walter O. Koenig
... Read more