Francis Bacon (nonfiction, British Author)

We get neither better nor worse as we grow up but more like ourselves. “Francis Bacon was born at 63 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin on 28 October 1909, of English parentage. His father, a former captain in the British army, moved to Ireland to breed and train racehorses. His mother, Winifred Bacon was from the wealthy Firth family from Sheffield. The family was based in County Kildare and rented Cannycourt House, a large residence near the town of Kilcullen. Bacon had two brothers and two sisters. For a time, Francis was sent to live with his maternal grandmother and her husband at Farmleigh, near Abbeyleix. The Bacon family subsequently lived at Straffan Lodge, near Naas in Country Kildare. They moved back to London for the duration of the First World War. When the family returned to Ireland they witnessed at first hand the political turbulence generated by the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.” [DUB] “It was in Paris that Bacon found a new sense of purpose. An exhibition of drawings by Picasso at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg inspired Bacon to become and artist. These were by no means the only influences on Bacon at this time. He must have encountered surrealism in art, poetry, and film and may have seen Soutine and de chirico’s solo exhibitions held in the summer of 1927.” [DUB]

Underneath every surface, Is something dying to get out. Underneath every burden, there’s a piece of art dying to be portrayed. “Bacon developed his own original form of art interpretation, mainly with distorted human figures.” [ACC] “The influence of Picasso’s biomorphic figures is apparent in Bacon's first major painting, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944). Against a fiery orange background, three barely human figures exhibit a compendium of injuries: the torsos are swollen and deformed, the ribs scarred and dirtied, the heads wounded and bandaged and each mouth strains at the end of a taut spinal column.” [FRAN BB] “Bacon's compelling and disturbing work quickly gained international recognition and acclaim. His first solo exhibition outside England was held in 1953 at Durlacher Brothers in New York and his first retrospective was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1955. In 1962 the Tate Gallery organized a Bacon retrospective, a modified version of which traveled to Mannheim, Turin, Zurich and Amsterdam.”[FRAN BB] “By the 1950’s, Bacon had developed his distinctive style as a figure painter, depicting human beings screaming in physical and psychic pain in a series of dark bedrooms, bathrooms and cages. The style of his work was expressionistic and depicted distorted human forms that stood as images of corrupt and debased humanity.” [FRAN BB] “In 1964, Bacon began a relationship with 39 year old Eastender George Dyer, whom he met, he claimed, while the latter was burgling his apartment. A petty criminal with a history of borstal and prison, Dyer was a somewhat tortured individual, insecure, alcoholic, appearance obsessed and never really fitting in within the bohemian set surrounding Francis. This relationship was stormy and in 1971, on the eve of Bacon’s major retrospective at the Paris Grand Palais, Dyer committed suicide in the hotel room they were sharing, overdosing on barbiturates. The even was recorded in Bacon’s 1973 masterpiece Triptych, May-June, 1973.” [Paint] While are today is rather subtle and continually modern, Bacon’s are was very abstract.

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. “Bacon was an outspoken, volatile character, well known for his taste for gambling and alcohol.” [FRAN BB] “He was collateral descendent of the Elizabethan Philosopher Francis Bacon. His artwork was well-known for its bold, austere, and often grotesque or nightmarish imagery.” [Paint] Bacon was known to have quite an affair with alcohol but without question, made a life and a name for himself.

“His spirits, ready wit and exceptional generosity attracted people from a wide variety of backgrounds including artists, writers and