Francis Bacon

Starred review from June 2, 1997
Phenomenal drinking habits, chronic sleep deprivation, and a dangerous taste for the lowlife didn't seem to dampen Bacon's productivity. Perhaps they even fueled it. During his turbulent lifetime (1909-1992), Bacon was called variously "the most important and original artist of postwar Europe" and "the greatest painter of flesh since Renoir." His images of screaming mouths, writhing bodies and elongated, headless necks were intended to be an assault on the viewer's nervous system; they conveyed, to use Art International editor Peppiatt's characteristically deft phrase, "the snarl of rage and the bellow of fear" that lurk in every human being. A challenge to biographers, Bacon manipulated his public persona and was tight-lipped about his genteel Irish origins. Peppiatt, however, had the advantage of a 30-year friendship with the artist in writing this full-scale, psychological biography. Here he explores the contradictions of Bacon's psyche: guilt about being homosexual versus a desire to flout convention; atheism mixed with an obsession with religious imagery; egotism tempered by near-saintly generosity. The flamboyantly promiscuous and eccentric Bacon lives in Peppiatt's descriptions ("he walked with a springily weaving step, as if the ground rolled beneath his feet like the deck of a ship at sea"). Peppiatt doesn't ignore Bacon's dark side, but overall, this anatomy lesson is not an autopsy, but the unveiling of a sympathetic portrait. Illustrations. (June) FYI: In April, Thames & Hudson will publish Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits which included 223 color illustrations, an introduction by Milan Kundera and an essay by France Borel

November 24, 2008
Peppiatt, having already written Bacon's biography (Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma
), now submits a collection of essays and interviews spanning his career of writing on the artist. Some of the pieces, updated with material originally omitted because Bacon (1909–1992) was still living, take on new life. They also echo each other, as when, in an essay for Art International
, Peppiatt writes that “comparatively few artists were admitted into Bacon's pantheon, and even they tended to be pared down to one or other aspect of their oeuvre”—Degas was one, as Bacon says in one interview: “Degas is complete in himself. I like his pastels enormously.” Each piece describes a different period in Bacon's life, a theme in the work, influences or significant companions. As each topic is inscribed with the biographical essentials, the motifs stand out in relief from the background details. The book gains a certain rhythm as the portrait is made simultaneously more simple and more complex. The effect, cast in Peppiatt's intimate reportage, works well, and the book will enrich the library of any Bacon enthusiast. 16 pages of color and 35 b&w illus.

November 25, 2024
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.