Looking Back at Francis Bacon
Looking Back at Francis Bacon by David Sylvester, published by Thames & Hudson in 2000, is an illustrated edition that spans 272 pages. This book provides a comprehensive account of the career of Francis Bacon, a significant figure in twentieth-century art known for his provocative and unsettling imagery. Drawing on Sylvester’s extensive personal knowledge and experience as Bacon’s friend and collaborator for over forty years, the text offers a critical overview of Bacon’s artistic development from 1933 to the early 1990s, while also addressing key aspects of his work.
Readers will find a detailed exploration of Bacon’s inspirations and intentions, enriched by previously unpublished extracts from Sylvester’s conversations with the artist. These discussions illuminate Bacon’s perspectives on his own art, modern painters, and historical influences. The book also includes reproductions of nearly every work discussed, featuring twelve triptych fold-outs, making it a visually engaging resource. This edition serves as a significant contribution to the understanding of Bacon’s impact on art, reflecting both his controversial life and the profound power of his paintings.
Official synopsis Publisher
Controversial in both life and art, Francis Bacon was one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. His monumental, unsettling images have an extraordinary power to disturb, shock, and haunt the spectator, “to unlock the valves of feeling and therefore return the onlooker to life more violently”.
Eminent writer and curator David Sylvester provides the definitive account of the career of an artist whose friend and collaborator he was for more than forty years. Drawing on his unparalleled personal knowledge of Bacon’s inspirations and intentions, he first offers a critical overview of the development of Bacon’s work from 1933 to the early 1990s, and then addresses its crucial aspects. Sylvester also reproduces previously unpublished extracts from his celebrated conversations with Bacon in which the artist speaks about himself, modern painters, and the art of the past. Finally, he gives a brief account of Bacon’s life, correcting errors that elsewhere have been presented as facts.
Accompanying the incisive and revealing text are reproductions of almost every Bacon work discussed, including twelve triptych fold-outs. The most complete work on Bacon yet, this book constitutes a portrait of one of the creative geniuses of our age by a writer of comparable distinction.
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