Hardcover, 208 pages
Published by Gagosian / Rizzoli.
Such a dense book (I knew this going into it), but probably the best book written about his life??
Revelations is the incredibly comprehensive biography of Francis Bacon, the celebrated artist whose life began in the first and ended in the last decade of the 20th century. It is a long and sometimes laborious work, but well worth the effort if you are looking for an in-depth picture of the painter’s life. Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan used an impressive array of sources to understand how Bacon was able to develop from a shy, asthmatic English boy in Ireland to an international superstar who felt as much at home in Paris as in London.
Growing up gay at a time when homosexuality was taboo and without any formal education, Bacon managed to carve out a career, starting as a designer in Paris. His life was anything but stable: always on the move and in need of money to gamble, he went from lover to lover and never stayed anywhere …
Revelations is the incredibly comprehensive biography of Francis Bacon, the celebrated artist whose life began in the first and ended in the last decade of the 20th century. It is a long and sometimes laborious work, but well worth the effort if you are looking for an in-depth picture of the painter’s life. Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan used an impressive array of sources to understand how Bacon was able to develop from a shy, asthmatic English boy in Ireland to an international superstar who felt as much at home in Paris as in London.
Growing up gay at a time when homosexuality was taboo and without any formal education, Bacon managed to carve out a career, starting as a designer in Paris. His life was anything but stable: always on the move and in need of money to gamble, he went from lover to lover and never stayed anywhere for long. Bacon has been described as charming and intelligent (he was a ferocious reader), but he was also known for his small-minded outbursts, especially when drunk (which was often). Above all, Bacon was a dandy when no one used that word anymore.
Although Stevens and Swan do take up Bacon’s artistic choices, they are mostly concerned with his personal and social life. Their account contains so much detail, that it affects the narrative. The authors also provide a large amount of background information for context. For instance, when Bacon follows his lover Peter Lacy to Tangier (Morocco), they describe the city and its liberal politics in detail. This makes the book very informative, but also overwhelming. The art comes second. While it becomes clear why Bacon was a figurative painter ‘in isolation’, abhorring abstraction and making art for art’s sake, I still don’t feel I fully understand his work now.
I consecutively picked up [b:Maurice|13325448|Maurice|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359446702l/13325448.SY75.jpg|2394184] by E.M. Forster to learn more about the era in which Bacon was born.
Francis Bacon - Head VI (1949) (source: Wikimedia)
