Francis Bacon: A Self-Portrait in Words

Art critic Peppiatt (Francis Bacon) excerpts documents, letters, transcripts, and other ephemera to present a revealing window into the mind of the famously private painter (1909–1992). For an artist who professed to have “little interest in or talent for” writing, Bacon provides plenty to chew on here, from stained and creased studio notes to jottings to friends and artist’s statements in which he spends as much time expounding on the human condition as on his work (“Man now realizes that he is an accident, a completely futile being, that he has to play out the game without reason”). Selected interviews shed light on Bacon’s artistic vision and its juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane, though an excess of brusque “could you possibly lend me” letters to friends, patrons, and gallery owners becomes tedious. While the sheer wealth of material obscures some gems, the intimate portrait that emerges—of Bacon apologetic over drunken escapades, occasionally desperate for money, and determined, in the face of “the great wave of abstraction... unfurling over the Western world,” to keep “the human figure as his central focus”—captivates. For Bacon aficionados, this is a must. Illus. (June)