When I was in Sydney ,
the Art Gallery of New South Wales was doing a retrospective on Francis Bacon,
and I worked in the café opposite the gallery. I got a lot of art-lovers coming
in and talking about how excited they were about the Bacon exhibition, but this
was about 20% of the people I spoke to. The rest had no idea who Francis Bacon
was – as Bacon’s self proclaimed number one fan, this made me feel sick. He is
undoubtedly one of the most passionate, influential, respected artists in terms
of contemporary figurative painting, being influenced by Velázquez, Van Gogh,
Picasso, Degas and Rembrandt. In my eyes he is the ultimate artist.
This is why it does not surprise me that Bacon achieved the
record price paid for a piece of art bought at auction this week, selling for
$142.4 million at the Christie’s postwar art auction in New York, beating
Munch’s $120 million masterpiece. The triptych of Lucien Freud is one of his
most notable works, not only because it portrays the relationship between Freud
and Bacon, two pioneering figurative painters, but because the bright
colourings are a stray away from Bacon’s usual brooding dark tones and violent
imagery, and the large scale size of them make them a typical Bacon-esque piece
that collectors were fighting over.
So WHY doesn’t everyone know Bacon? Ever since I was young
I’ve known who Matisse and Picasso and Warhol are, but I don’t see them racking
up the top selling price at auction. Maybe the basic, block colour shapes of
their work entices young children and is easy to recreate in art classes – I
vaguely remember copying a Matisse with some acrylic paint when I was 10 and
genuinely thinking I was the next big thing in the art world. Bacon is dark and
dangerous and the content is probably not suitable for children, but that
doesn’t mean he should be tossed to the side.
In fact I think he brings to light to true meaning of art - he is passionate and he loved what he did, he used inspiration from other artists to create his work and shape his techniques. He uses colour in an interesting way. He plays with size. He explores the human form vividly in his art. He has an interesting personal life that made him so interesting and peculiar.
In fact I think he brings to light to true meaning of art - he is passionate and he loved what he did, he used inspiration from other artists to create his work and shape his techniques. He uses colour in an interesting way. He plays with size. He explores the human form vividly in his art. He has an interesting personal life that made him so interesting and peculiar.
He is my hero.
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