Francis Bacon : books and painting / edited by Didier Ottinger ; with texts by Didier Ottinger, Chris Stephens, Miguel Egana, Michael Peppiatt, Catherine Howe.
Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, September 11, 2019 - January 20, 2020. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
List of works in the exhibition. Anna Hiddleston-Galloni -- Paintings -- Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Georges Bataille, Friedrich Nietzche, Aeschylus, Michel Leiris -- Paintings -- Watching death at work: the iconography of Francis Bacon's late work / Chris Stephens -- Gilles Deleuze 'over Francis Bacon's shoulder' / Miguel Egana -- Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare / Michael Peppiatt -- Textual transgressions: Francis Bacon's French legacy / Catherine Howe -- Francis Bacon's libraries -- Chronology / Anna Hiddleston-Galloni -- List of works in the exhibition.
Summary:
Published to accompany the first Francis Bacon retrospective in Paris for twenty years, this catalogue analyses Bacon's works from 1971 onwards in light of his relationship to literature. Bacon always vigorously opposed over-analysis of his paintings, preferring to interpret them in purely illustrative or symbolic terms; he admitted, however, that literature was a powerful stimulus to his imagination. The artist was inspired by the images conjured up by certain texts: Aeschylus' phrase "the reek of human blood smiles out at me" in particular haunted Bacon, while his 1978 work Painting refers to T. S. Eliot's seminal poem 'The Waste Land'. The inventory of Bacon's personal library has identified more than 1,300 books, ranging from Bataille and Conrad to Nietzsche and Leiris. Including twelve of Bacon's renowned triptychs, this lavish publication features eleven gatefolds and some sixty paintings created by Bacon between 1971 and his death in 1992. Reproduced here with analyses of Bacon's paintings in the light of some of his most admired authors, these specially commissioned texts reveal new ways of understanding some of the most powerful works in the modern canon. Exhibition: Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (11.09.2019 - 20.01.2020).
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.