Someone paintings of Francis Bacon are associated with"Bleeding" canvases of Edvard Munch. Others, watching the bizarre game of images, immediately recall the masterpieces of Dali and other surrealists. In the end, the correlation of the works of the English artist with a certain stylistic flow is not so important, it will be taken up (or already taken up) by art historians. The spectator is prepared for another fate - to contemplate the paintings of Francis Bacon and to share the sensations of “hell that descended to earth”.
The early years of the artist painted anxiousevents of the First World War, because of which his family had to leave Ireland and go to London. However, the year 1918, which brought relief to mankind, did not relieve Francis’s anxiety. For the future artist, the theater of military operations was transferred to his own home, and the main opponent was the tyrant-father. Once he found a boy for some piquant pursuits: he tried on women's clothes. The father did not accept the homosexuality of his son and kicked him out of the house. For a whole year, the 17-year-old Bacon had to be content with the occasional side jobs and the money that the mother sent. Then the hard parent changed his anger to mercy and sent Francis on a journey with a close friend of the family. There the young men became lovers ...
In 1927, a young man finds himself in Paris,where he observes the Picasso exhibition, and decides for himself firmly: he, Francis Bacon, is an artist whose paintings will someday be worthy of such glory. The young man was impressed not only by modernist art, but also by classical art. "The beating of babies" Poussin struck the artist with his emotion, it seemed to him that the canvas - one continuous cry.
The last statement is very characteristicexpressionists. Looking ahead, let us say that Bacon Francis (the artist’s paintings and biography confirm this) shared their understanding of the world as a cruel environment in which a person is extremely fragile and unhappy. And creativity from this angle turns into a scream because of the feeling of ontological loneliness.
Back in London, Bacon masters the professioninterior decorator. The tapestries created by him, furniture, have gained popularity with the public, which cannot be said unconditionally about the works of fine art. In 1933, one of the reproductions of Bacon was honored to be near the Picasso canvas (in the book of the famous critic Herbert Reed). This somewhat cheered up the artist, but not for long. Organized by him in 1934, the exposition did not cause, to put it mildly, a big furore. Two years later - failure again. The international exhibition of the surrealists, where Francis Bacon offered the paintings, refused him, responding in a typical avant-garde manner: they say, the canvases are not surreal enough.
Военные годы не были самыми легкими для Фрэнсиса.At first he was assigned to the reserve of Civil Defense, but then they abandoned this idea due to the artist’s health (he suffered from asthma). Somewhere between 1943 and 1944, enlightenment descended on Bacon. He destroyed most of his early works, and instead offered the world "Three stages of the image based on the crucifixion." It was then that the artist Francis Bacon was born again, paintings whose biography will be the subject of discussion for half the world.
Triptych was exhibited in the gallery Lefebvre, callingbig scandal. The latter, however, only contributed to the increase in interest in the artist's work. In the fall of 1953, Bacon’s personal exhibition was held in New York, and a year later he was honored to represent the United Kingdom at the 27th Biennale in Venice.
In the early 60s, Bacon moved for the last time.He decides to settle in the room where the horses were once kept. The studio stable became a legend even during the artist's life, because it was here that Francis Bacon created paintings with names that later became known to any fan of modern art. And exactly the same legendary became the chaos that prevailed in the workshop, which contained sketches, postcards, excerpts of Francis necessary for Francis. In the general heap were the works of the photographer Maybridge, which served as the source for the creation of the “Study of the Human Body”. The pictured Bacon woman and child "come" from the early works of the master. However, the artist borrows the plot with a tragic flavor. The imprinted woman is, in essence, a piece of wounded flesh, not far from which there is a paralytic child. The extremely dark atmosphere of the painting by Francis Bacon is complemented by a flashy shade of red in a completely dehumanized space.
For two decades, an artist withPals became a frequenter of the “Room with Columns” bar. There he found himself models, one of whom, Henrietta Moraes, is depicted as a "lying figure." This canvas, like no other, is full of realistic details: peering, you can find a syringe stuck in the girl’s shoulder, as well as a bed with stripes, an ashtray, light bulbs. At the same time, the very figure of Henrietta is drawn more weakly.
В сюжете картины явно просматриваются аналогии с paintings of other artists, such as "Guernica" and "Avignon girls" by Picasso. Such inconsistencies are not accidental: Francis Bacon, whose paintings were created with an eye to the work of the Spanish surrealist, sought to “free” human nakedness, tabooed for centuries.
The beginning of the 70s was marked for the artist nextdramatic events. In 1971, the lover of Francis George Dyer, with whom he lived for about seven years, died. Following him, John Deakin, a photographer who worked closely with the artist, dies (it is known that Bacon never wrote his works from life). Such losses forced the master to increasingly capture himself. “I already have no one to draw,” he notes sadly.
Как и остальные картины Фрэнсиса Бэкона, его self-portraits seek to capture the true essence of the model. Hence the artist’s irresistible disgust at stunted facial expressions or advantageous postures. On the contrary, the image of Bacon is dynamic, it changes under the master's brush. Some features are drawn in more detail, while others disappear altogether.
In 1988, in the then Soviet Moscow, an exhibition of works by Francis took place, even if in limited quantities, which was a sure proof of the artist’s recognition outside the western world.
Sometimes the paintings of Bacon cause controversialreviews, but an absolute majority of critics still agree that the tragic, expressionistic sketches leave no one indifferent. They are relevant now, 23 years after the death of Bacon.
