Book Description
This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode.It brings together an extensive collection of Bacon's writing - the major prose in full, together with sixteen other pieces not otherwise available - to give the essence of his work and thinking.Although he had a distinguished career as a lawyer and statesman, Francis Bacon's lifelong goal was to improve and extend human knowledge.In The Advancement of Learning (1605) he made a brilliant critique of the deficiencies of previous systems of thought and proposed improvements to knowledge in every area of human life. He conceived the Essays (1597, much enlarged in 1625) as a study of the formative influences on human behaviour, psychological and social.In The New Atlantis (1626) he outlined his plan for a scientific research institute in the form of a Utopian fable.In addition to these major English works this edition includes 'Of Tribute', an important early work here printed complete for the first time, and a revealing selection of his legal and political writings, together with his poetry. A special feature of the edition is its extensive annotation which identifies Bacon's sources and allusions, and glosses his vocabulary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Best Bacon in Paperback
I concur with Gulley Jimson about the number of unnecessarily annotated words.The space could have been put to better use:a larger topical index would have been welcome, and I sorely missed Bacon's own apophthegms.But I would emphasize the positive point Jimson makes and do so in capital letters:this is the BEST edition of Bacon in paperback.Every page of the collection shows immense editorial care.

Though Vickers may have overdone the annotation, the notes are nonetheless exceedingly helpful.Vickers goes far beyond defining words.He provides concise and very well informed introductions to each individual piece; he points out how Bacon returns to topics, quotations, and metaphors; he identifies sources and allusions; he provides translations of Bacon's frequent use of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French.If he is overly cautious about how well his readers know English (he admits on p. 493 that he may be excessive), I expect that most readers will be grateful that he meticulously assists with words and phrases that have altered or vanished from use:who now will understand "a seeled dove" or "a net of subtility and spinosity"?

Vickers frankly acknowledges his debts to prior scholars, James Spedding and Michael Kiernan in particular.His introduction is concise, packed with information, and reminds modern readers that Bacon's career was a legal one.Vickers' decision to include two of Bacon's legal charges--one for poisoning, one regarding duels--was inspired;these pieces are short and eye-opening.

All in all, the selection pays tribute to Bacon in the best manner, refreshing his works by presenting them whole, with sympathy and respect, in their perilous historical context.

Meet Brian Vickers, insane pedant
I actually recommended this edition in another review over the Penguin collection of Bacon's essays - and I still do: there is more here, and it is cheaper.But this is still one of the most horrible pieces of scholarship I have ever come across.Vickers, the editor, has decided that there is absolutely no distinction between what a reader actually needs to know and what Brian Vickers happens to know.

Before I give some examples, here is the editor defending himself in the Preface: "Many of Bacon's words have totally changed their meaning since he wrote, and not to be aware of their intended sense means that readers would receive at best a vague impression."

Now, let me give an example of his helpful elucidations. I am choosing a passage literally at random.Here is first sentence of "Of Death."

Men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak

How many footnotes does that passage seem like it requires?Perhaps one, two at most?Vickers gives us six.He helpfully explains that "go" can also mean "walk" - which certainly opened up the entire passage for me.He cites a scholarly paper that analyzes Bacon's use of the word "death" (I'll go right out and read that one); he explains every possible allusion that the passage might contain, and also points out that "tribute" means "something owing."

I want to quote one more example, to show how seriously pathological this guy is.Here is the first sentence from Of Beauty: "Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set, and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect."

This perfectly ordinary sentence has - get this - five footnotes!"Best plain set" is identified as "Mounted simply."Vickers points out that "comely," in Bacon's distant 17th century English, actually means "attractive."That's still what it means, you nutcase!Anyway, he goes on like this for the entire book, and produces a truly astonishing 300 pages of notes for about 500 pages of actual text.

By the end of a single page, any reader who is actually reading Bacon for pleasure will be unable to tell when to flip to the back of the book, because every other word has a footnote mark next to it.The result is that the genuinely necessary notes, which could actually have been helpful, are lost along with the useless ones.

I showed my friend the book and after flipping through it his first reaction was: "Wow, this guy really hates Francis Bacon."And he might be right.Maybe Vickers resents the fact that he has devoted his life to this writer, and wants to bury him under an avalanche of minutae; or, more charitably, perhaps he feels that you are just too dumb to understand Francis Bacon without Brian Vickers explaining every single word to you.

Well, if the first is true, he is failed; and if the second, he is wrong: Bacon is as readable as ever.Ignore the footnotes and enjoy.But somewhere out there is an older edition of the Major Works edited by a sane man, where useful background notes are concisely provided - try to find it.And if there isn't, Oxford needs to hand these great pieces of writing over to someone else. ... Read more

Book Description
Includes an in-depth chronology of Bacon's life and work. Accompanies the Edinburgh International Festival at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, June 4- Sept 4, 2005. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Examining the Essence of the Model and Exposing the Passion
FRANCIS BACON: PORTRAITS AND HEADS is a superb catalogue that accompanied an exhibition in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh last summer and unlike most of the Bacon retrospectives, this exhibition focused entirely on the many heads Bacon painted. As other artist come and go Francis Bacon continues to be one of the more 'published' artists of the twentieth century and it is refreshing to see that there are still new things to say about the work of one of the most significant painters in recent years

Included are self portraits, portraits of famous people some of whom actually commissioned portraits while the majority are of friends, lovers, fellow artists, and images from photographs. Bacons small works carry as much power as the large canvases, perhaps that is due to the lack of need to place the figure in a constructed environment or space. Or perhaps when Bacon concentrated on only the head, his probing eye could explore and paint the model's psyche (as well as his own responsive psyche!).

The reproductions are superb, on excellent paper, and given full attention in the catalogue. There are two fine essays in addition to the obligatory Introduction and comments from the curatorial staff. Though most of these paintings can be found in other catalogue raisonnes of Bacon's work, seeing the small head portraits in a single space is a fine idea and one from which we continue to learn about just what made Bacon unique and inimitable! Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 06


... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Still one of the most fascinating books on the nature of creativity ever published.
This is the most recent and expanded edition of the book, which by now has become a classic work that really transcends the "interview with a famous artist" label. I own an earlier edition of the book that I have virtually memorized, so the new additions and expansions David Sylvester has included stand out for me, and amplify the original edition considerably. Whether or not you are a fan of Francis Bacon's painting, the book offers Bacon's insights (as well as Sylvester's) on the very nature of creativity, obsession, and what drives artists of any kind (painter, poet, composer, etc.) to devote their lives to their chosen pursuits. Plus, Bacon's rather sulphurous personality and opinions are captured vividly on the page, through Sylvester's obvious freindship and fascination with the man. An absolutely essential, and rather unique book...over the years, I have been amazed at how many people I have met, from all areas of the arts, who have found this work a source of inspiration and endless fascination.

Invaluable Chronicle of a Tortured Artist
"Interviews with Francis Bacon" (1987) captures remarkably on paper the tortured mind of the famous British painter (1909-1992). It belongs on the shelf of every Bacon fan and artist, regardless of medium. Nine interviews range from 1962 to 1986, Bacon's fifties through his seventies, in the form of interactive conversations with art historian David Sylvester (British, 1924-2001), ranging from Bacon's frustrated youth to his unique artistic techniques, the meaning of art to the meaning of life. Sylvester cleverly steers toward topics Bacon finds interesting, allowing him to discuss them at length. (Some of the original audio may be sampled at BBC4's website, though this book's text was heavily edited and re-manipulated from those recordings.)

The final chapter is the most biographical. Bacon, 77, recaps his life and career in detail, including his "coming out," at a time homosexuality was illegal in Britain, the relationship with his intolerant father coming to an end as a result. Overall, the book forms a clear portrait of an intellectually restless artist, demonized by the struggle to express satisfactorily the horrific images which constantly stream into his head. There is no overarching structure to the book, thus many interviews cover the same ground different ways, with illuminating results. Bacon's answers usually reinforce or embellish what was said earlier, but he sometimes answers the same question differently over time, demonstrated for example by his increasing dislike for "drink and drugs."

Some themes persist throughout. Chronically anxious and hypertensive, he can never sit still, never relax. Not religious, Bacon believes "man is an accident, a futile being, he must play out the game without reason," and life has only whatever meaning we give it, yet his haunted soul clearly identifies with the tragedy of the Crucifixion, which he considers the perfect narrative of the mythic "tragic hero," and the ultimate symbol of human devotion despite life's vicissitudes. (One famous Bacon work metaphorically depicts a hypodermic syringe stuck into the subject's arm, representing a nail stuck into the hand). He is similarly affected by the open-mouthed cry of human agony, which he expresses in perhaps his most famous and retold obsession, the many horrifying studies of Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X.

Too human, he is concerned with posterity, and denies himself the comfort of calling himself a "painter." He believes an artist must "solve the problem" of art to be a success, which to him means they must render the known through the unknown, or create the "illustrative" and "narrative" through the use of the "irrational." Discussing Picasso in this light, he says he finds surrealism "more real" than realism, probably meaning he finds surrealism more directly communicates the human condition. He also believes strongly in figuration, slaying abstract art with one devastating word: "Fashion!" He seems burdened by a lack of proper training, having started his career as an interior designer, especially when discussing the trials of his studio work, describing the way he tosses paint at the canvas, the way he tries not to work a canvas too much, potentially ruining it, and the conflicted feelings he holds toward works he has already painted, or those he is still painting.

The book usefully reproduces many works in small black-and-white images at times when the conversation turns to them, both Bacon's works and those of others, like Picasso and Rembrandt. The lack of color is entirely unnoticed, as the book focuses on the artist's psychology and opinion, which these plates illustrate perfectly. (Full-color reproduction would probably also have made the book needlessly expensive). Most remarkably, of all the photographs and self-portraits in the book, Bacon never looks directly at the viewer, illustrating most strikingly his natural over-sensitivity and tortured self-denial.

Bacon has said "art is completely a game by which man distracts himself," and "the artist must really deepen the game in order to be worth anything at all." If anyone feels Bacon "played the game" well, and "distracts" successfully his audience, or that he was "worth anything at all," then this book belongs in that person's library.

Only the Best
The best book by any artist I have read....utterly inspirational for anyone involved in creative endeavors. What's more, you don't have to agree with all of Bacon's forthright opinions. It probably helps to have seen some of his best work in color, as all the reproductions are monochrome. No matter...I have given away more cpoies of this book than I care to remember. Essential.

A fly on the wall
There are some writers who are able to capture the essence of an artist through the interview format (James Lord's sitting for Giocometti is one) and in this book David Sylvester plumbs the depths of Francis Bacon's psyche like no other writer to date.Not only is his short book brilliantly executed in drawing out the artistic temperament and the especial qualities that chewed every aspect of Bacon's rich brain, it also allows us to sit back and hear the very personal aspects of Bacon's life, aspects that are occult in his cryptic paintings.This is reportage at its zenith.The big difference here is that Sylvester writes so well that the atmosphere is palpable - as though we were the fly on the wall.Brilliant, just brilliant.

Absolute MUST for any artist; especially: 'fine artists'
The most fascinating art related book I have yet read. Never had Iexpected Bacon to be soopen and Frank about his own work. I've read andre-read it and will no doubt do so again. There were obviously very fewpeople Bacon would consider worth speaking to in depth about his art andI'm grateful that David Sylvester was of sufficient calibre in Francis'mind otherwise there would be very little written material other thanentertaining anecdotes and misinterpretive reviews etc. I'd like to know ifthe complete interviews have been published yet?

John White ... Read more

Book Description
Bacon, founder of modern inductivism and prophet of theindustrial revolution, reveals a debt to antiquity in these polishedEssays. The text of this volume is that of Bacon's second revised andenlarged edition of 1625. On subjects ranging among state policy,personal conduct and the appreciation of nature, Bacon transcends thebrute force of scholastic logic and the abstractions of modernphilosophy.Download Description
Francis Bacon offers his opinion on many different topics in these essays, ranging from life and death to love and anger.Full of wit and wisdom, the essays are the perfect example of common sense.Though short pieces, they are thought provoking and a great pleasure to read. Please Note:This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher.This eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Civil and Moral Essays
Francis Bacon is one of the authors whose ideas pervade society, but whose work very few of us have read.For example, many of us know of Bacon's saying that "Knowledge is Power" only through Economist Alfred Marshall. However, Bacon's analysis of how human science progresses is an essential classic. The modern scientific method owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Bacon's induction method. Bacon bases his induction method on observation and experiment.His Essays - this book - makes observations about life in all its varied dimensions. As an economist my reading focused on essays with a material content such as the essays "Of Innovations", "Of Riches", "Of Customs and Education", and so on. However, I have browsed or will soon browse other essays of the book.

Overall, it is impressive that one person did so much that has remained so insightfully informative for so long!Although the reading is slowed by the archaic and old style of the language of the book, I strongly recommend this book to all readers including young readers seeking to build their character.

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

Get more bacon
Why get just the essays from Penguin Classics when you can get Bacon's 800 page major works from Oxford World's Classics (which includes the essays) for pretty much the same money?The difference is in cents - and you get five hundred pages more with Oxford, in an equally sturdy, attractive, and well-edited edition.

Some books are to be chewed and digested
When I was a very young person and a very great reader I thought that every book must be read cover to cover, and that to miss a page was a kind of sin. Coming across Bacon on reading I came to understand that not every book had to be chewed and digested, but that there were some to be dipped in and tasted. Bacon's epigramatic wisdom has a power , a poetic condensation. I do not know the essays as a whole , but I do have the sense of Bacon as a powerful intellect capable of providing insight into diverse areas of life. I do not however have the sense of a self , and one with humor irony charm of a kind one has with Montaigne who is a far more appealing figure.
I also believe the sometimes contradictory, and often ' broken' character of the essays do make them at times feel as if they are collections of individual apercus rather than whole constructions.
On the whole though this is a classic work one which I intend to look in and reread again.

The Renaissance Socrates
It's useless to dig for just one or two epigrams to stand in for the totality of Bacon's penetrating genius in the "Essays."Though it is perhaps fashionable today to detract from him in order to praise Montaigne, it should be clear that Bacon is at least as indispensable.As terse as Emerson is expansive, Bacon's "Essays" are perhaps the most truly Classical (in spirit) prose in the English language. Fans of the Leo Strauss school should have a fieldday reading between the lines of the essays "On Atheism" and "On Superstition"; for the rest of us, nobody can come away from even one of these essays without gaining invaluable insights.Though Bacon is rightly heralded for the radical newness of his pragmatic methods, he is ensteeped in history-- those mindful of Napoleon's dictum that history is the only true philosophy will certainly respond enthusiastically to Bacon's approach.From the post-Machiavellian insights of "Of Empire" to the pre-Enlightenment ethics of "Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature", one will find in reading Bacon's prose what the youth of Athens must have found in following Socrates:the presence of a benevolent, worldly-wise, supremely rational mind determined to show you the order of the world.

Priceless gems
A collection of 59 essays by one of the shrewdest bipeds (some would say abrilliant rogue!) that ever walked this stale promontory of ours . SirFrancis Bacon offers his views on a whole smorgasbord of topics rangingfrom Truth,Death,'Adversitie',Marriage & the singlelife,Love,Boldness,Superstition,Friendship ,Health,Ambition,Youth,Beauty toAnger & Fame.These are short pieces (usually a couple of pages) butpacked full of wit & timeless wisdom ____you can dip into them one at atime & chew them at your leisure .These essays are the quintessence ofwholesome English common sense .Read them leisurely over a cup of tea(orcoffee) on a crisp autumn afternoon (as the trees turn color) to savortheir distinctly English flavor. I happen to have a Morroco-bound,gilt-edged collection of these essays which was an added treat! ... Read more

Book Description
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest British artists of this century. For over fifty years the intense emotions conveyed in his works have shocked and enthralled an ever-growing audience. David Sylvester, a leading Bacon scholar, brings together many of the artist's best paintings involving the human figure, the central subject of his work. Bacon's diverse body imagery can be seen in his self-portraits; nude studies; portraits of friends such as Henrietta Moraes, George Dyer, and Lucian Freud; and his series of Popes. Many of Bacon's prototypes were "found" images: reproductions of Michelangelo, Velásquez, Degas, Muybridge's photographs of the human figure in motion, film stills from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, magazine photos of politicians and boxers.
Bacon disliked working directly from a model and therefore often commissioned photographs, especially from John Deakin. A prolific creator of self-portraits, Bacon painted dozens, mostly small canvases of his head. Usually three are put together to form a triptych; sometimes one appears as a solo canvas or as a unit in a triptych along with other people's heads. One of the most powerful is a full-length portrait, the Sleeping Figure of 1974, painted from a photograph of him stretched out on a hospital bed. Other paintings portray bodies wracked by violence--a wailing mouth, a cry of despair. Sylvester's observations show how certain images were linked to incidents in Bacon's life, such as childhood fear of his father and his lifelong devotion to his nanny. The catalog includes paintings that date from 1945 to the mid-1980s, including single canvases and triptychs from collections around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A marriage of words and paintings
David Sylvester is one of the finest biographers of contemporary painters on the shelves today.His insights into such obtuse minds as Giocomettti and de Kooning and Francis Bacon have brought us, the viewer and thinker, closer to the real synapses at work.In this lavishly illustrated catalogue the emphasis is on the whole human body - alone, in confined spaces, distorted and reassembled in triptychs.Sylvester opens this format with terse discussions about particular paintings, using only black and white details of the works he is discussing.Then, once we have the groundwork established, the last half of the book is simply the paintings, printed on the finest peper, with foldouts that do justice to the triptychs and color separations that are as near to the originals as is possible.A feast for the eyes and mind....and imagination. ... Read more

Book Description
FRANCIS BACON (1909-1992) POSSESSED THE RARE ABILITY TO TRANSFORM UNCONSCIOUS COMPULSIONS INTO FIGURATIVE, HUMAN-LIKE FORMS THAT SEEM TO EVOKE THE RAW EMOTIONS THAT BORE THEM. MIXING REALISM AND ABSTRACTION, BACON DELVES DEEP BENEATH THE SURFACES OF THINGS, OPENING UP THE HUMAN BODY TO REVEAL THE CHAOS THAT LIES WITHIN AND STRUGGLING WITH ALL THAT IS INEXPLICABLE. EROTIC AND GROTESQUELY BEAUTIFUL IS THE WORK OF THIS LEGENDARY PAINTER WHOSE HAUNTING, DISTORTED FIGURES HAVE INSPIRED ENTIRE GENERATIONS OF PAINTERS WHO SEEK TO EMULATE HIS HIGHLY ORIGINAL STYLE. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Succinct yet Inclusive Biography of Francis Bacon through his Art
Luigi Ficacci in his Taschen book FRANCIS BACON: 1909 - 1992 has managed to give us a short survey in words about the particular genius of Francis Bacon, but at the same time presents a solid framework in which to study the primary contributions of Bacon's output by focusing on eleven of the most important works.And while the bookstore shelves have many fine expensive surveys of all of Bacon's works, this little book is a gift to the student whose pocketbook would be stretched as much as the shelf weight by those greater volumes!

Ficacci's writing style is a bit dry, but his points are well made and even better related to the paintings he emphasizes.His work divides Bacon's obsessions into chapters on 'The Poetics of Bacon', 'The Expression of Horror', 'The Human Body', 'The Scene of Tragedy', 'The Portraits', and 'Sources of Inspiration'.Ficacci crowns his book with one of the finest capsulated biographies in print: each phase of Bacon's amazing career is played out in terse paragraphs as a timeline.

Though Ficacci dwells on eleven paintings, this book includes fine reproductions of most of Bacon's works from the earliest to the last, with many little inclusions of works rarely seen in other books.For a superb introduction to one of the 20th century's most influential artists in a readable and affordable scale, this book is among the top choices.Grady Harp, December 05 ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Amazing artist.....
Francis Bacon has been called the greatest poet of the second half of the 20th century, and even those who deeply dislike his work find it memorable and horribly impressive.He is an artist obsessed by the horror of existence and the terrible vulnerability of being.He professed to see no hope, and yet his very life is a denial of such despair, because creativity can never really come without some belief in the meaning of what is created.Certain images recur again and again in Bacon's paintings, and the best known is that of the screaming pope, after Velazquez's great portrait of Pope Innocent X.Bacon refused to study Velazquez's portrait, preferring instead to paint from his memory of that painting's authoritarian majesty.
On the front of this text (the pope's image) Bacon has pushed down to the bottom half of the canvas and squashed the pope low in his chair.Around him, Bacon has built the suggestion of a cage or cell.He has marked him out with an arrow, as if this clenched and tortured image was an exhibit in the artist's chamber of horrors.
Bacon has also drawn from another famous image, Rembrandt's great Carcass of Beef, and has hung the animal's flayed and bloody flesh on either side of this human animal.Rembrandt painted his carcass with reverence; Bacon must see these carcasses as raw meat-the pope as he will be-and dangles them, almost insouciantly, behind the papal chair.
What a fabulously interesting, tortured artist----1909-1992-Ireland/England.
Fantastic text!!!

A great master learns from the great masters
This book illustrates an exhibition held in 2004 at the Beyeler foundation in Basel, Switzerland. The subject is to confront Bacon's paintings to thegreat masters who influenced him (Velasquez,Titian, Goya, Ingres, Picasso, Giacometti...)and who were omnipresent in his studio through photos of works, often in black and white, pinned on the walls. Many illustrations show that nothing Bacon painted sprang out of the blue and that he was a keen student of art history. The book shows how he transcends what his predecessors already expressed (passion, anxiety, the absurdity of life, the frailty of the human being...) and why he was one of the most powerful artists of the XXth century.

not what i expected
there are a lot of writings in this book, and a lot of other's art, but as far as francis bacon goes, if you want a book of his works, this is not a good book to get. the majority of the images are of all kinds of artists that they talk about in contrast with bacon's work. i was disappointed as well to the images they chose of bacon's work. not among my favorite at all. its a well made book, but not what i wanted, and now will have to buy another book souly on francis bacon

Just delicious!
Well, that's what we want in an art book- sensuality of paint, see the brushmarks, really good reproductions. I really enjoy this book.
This is a good chronicle of Bacon pushing the envelope of Painting- we see the manipulation of space and form as well as the darker side his subjects will explore. I've never readthe print part, I look at pictures and draw my own conclusions when dealing with books on serious painting. The reproductions are super, and well presented, so I highly reccomend.

A Comprehensive Analysis of the Influences on the Art of Francis Bacon
Fortunate were the ones who were privileged to see the exhibition FRANCIS BACON AND THE TRADITION OF ART in Vienna at the Kunsthistorisches Museum or at the Foundation Beyeler in Basel in 2003 and 2004.What an experience that must have been.Curator Barbara Steffen assembled on of the most comprehensive surveys of the works of Bacon and presented them in context with the ideas and works of art that influenced Bacon's genius. In Steffen's words 'This exhibit is the first opportunity to examine his works side by side with the artists who inspired him, and in this way to cast at least some light on how he conceived and devised his paintings'.

The legacy of this exhibition is well preserved in this stunning 'catalogue' book of the same title as the exhibition.The dignity of the effort is suggested in the numerous essays that accompany the book, essays by Steffen herself (The Papal Portraits, Veils and Striations as Motifs of Isolation, The Scream, The Cage Motif, The Representation of the Body: Velazquez - Bacon, Mirrors and Reflections); Verena Gamper (Bacon's Realism after Van Gogh, The Motif of the Crucifixion in Triptych Format, The Ambivalent Function of the Shadow); Olivier Berggruen (Bacon, Picasso and Surrealism, The Representative Portrait); Margarita Cappock (The Round, Bacon and Ingres, The Motif of Meat and Flesh); Alexandra Hennig (Francis Bacon: Portraiture After Representation).The quality of writing is scholarly and immensely readable. It is important to list these essays because they so well describe the flavor of this book and of the exhibition's thesis.

But the glory of the book is in the presentation of myriad photographs, reproductions of the works of all of the artists who informed Bacon's oeuvre, photographs of Bacon and his studio and friends, and the drawings and paintings of Bacon, many in gatefold presentation. The color reproduction is excellent and there are generous samplings of details to punctuate the writers' points.

Though there are many books about Bacon and of Bacon's paintings, few compare to this unique stance and enormity of information. Appendices to the book include the Interviews with Bacon by David Sylvester and by Michel Archimbaud as well as a fine biography, catalogue of exhibitions and bibliography.Even for those whose library shelves bulge with books on Bacon, this magnificent volume is indispensable. Highly recommended.Grady Harp, January 06 ... Read more

Book Description
"Strikingly produced and limpidly written."—Library Journal

Francis Bacon famously found inspiration in photographs, film stills, and mass-media imagery. In Camera, a bravura accomplishment of original research, reveals how these new media informed some of Bacon's most important paintings and triggered turning points in his stylistic development.

Martin Harrison, who was granted privileged and unparalleled access to unpublished material from the archives of the Bacon estate, provides a new under-standing of the thought processes and working methods of the creator of one of the most compelling bodies of work in twentieth-century art. Throughout the book, sharp analysis leads to startling insights into this complex, tortured, and hugely creative artist and into the unique iconography of his art. With the aid of over 270 superb illustrations (200 in color), including a broad range of source images and documents, the book addresses important questions about Bacon's practice and reassesses key paintings to shed new light on his life and work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A tool for artist looking at Francis Bacon
This book is an essential tool to better understand the process in which Francis Bacon produced his master works. As an artist, this book demystifies the painter while testifying his genius.

A Thoroughly Investigated Aspect of the Genius of Francis Bacon
It seems the number of books about British artist Francis Bacon, both biography and art monograph, grows each year, an indication of just how important this innovative and strange painter is in the spectrum of art history.IN CAMERA FRANCIS BACON: PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND THE PRACTIVE OF PAINTING is an erudite and fascinating work that opens previously sealed windows into the dark life and immensely controversial creativity of this daring genius.

Bacon, unlike most artists of his time and even of the present, had no problems discussing the fact that he utilized the art of photography in gathering information and inspiration for his huge canvases.Bacon saw the camera as a ready resource of information from which products he then could study, cut and paste, distort and wildly mix as the impetus of his own painted creations. But the extent to which Bacon immersed himself in the images he collected and deposited in the ungainly mess of his studio at 7 Reece Mews is now brought to light by author Martin Harrison.

Harrison not only understands photography's history and impact, he also understands painting.He wisely interviewed Bacon's last lover and inheritor of Bacon's estate until his death, John Edwards, and through Edwards' auspices Harrison gained access to many of the never before seen images that grace this book. Here are sketches, manipulated and notated photographs, photographic images of some of Bacon's destroyed canvases and plates of drawings and paintings not included elsewhere, making this volume of information invaluable to the Bacon devotees, no matter the number of volumes on their library shelves!

Harrison writes with the style of the scholar he is and at times the writing itself is rather dry and academic.But if the reader perseveres these thick passages of documentation, the reward is new knowledge of just how Bacon utilized photos, newsprint snaps, movies, and all manner of the camera's output to gain the spark of brilliance that resulted in his amazing output.The book is on the finest paper and is filled with superb reproductions of the photographic stimuli and the resultant paintings.This is an invaluable volume for the study of Bacon's art.Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 06

A fascinating exploration of photography and painting
"In Camera" is one of the most interesting books on Francis Bacon, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, ever published for several reasons: First, it takes good advantage of the meanwhile fairly large array of books, catalogs and articles which have been published on Bacon. Second, Harrison had access to materials, mainly photographs that have not been published before. Third, he was able to interview several persons close to Bacon, notably John Edwards, Bacon's last companion. Fourth, and most importantly, the book has a clear thesis that the author is able to present convincingly. It is Harrison's position that Bacon used mainly photographs either taken by photographers by his request or from books and magazines to the effect that they: "triggered decisive turning points in his stylistic development" (from book jacket).

In five chapters Harrison explores different type of media and images and how these affected Bacon's painting: Motion pictures, Interior Design, different artists such as Picasso and Michelangelo, the photography of Eadweard Muybridge, and the photographers that he hired to take photographs for him such as Deakin and Edwards. From the thousands of objects found in Bacon's studio at his death many were photographs from the above mentioned sources, but also taken from magazines and torn from books. Of these many had paint splatters and finger smudges in paint proving that Bacon used these for his paintings. A cut out photo of George Dyer, Bacon's lover from the 60's until his suicide in 1971 was even used as a template for several paintings. For many paintings Harrison shows the painting and the image or photograph that it was based on side by side. For example the Triptych (1991) used a front cover of "The Correspondent Magazine", a Muybridge photograph of mane wrestling, and a photo of Bacon. The book has over 270 excellent illustrations, of which at least 100 I saw for the first time and I own an extensive collection of Bacon books and catalogs.

The fact that Bacon used other images for inspiration does not mean that he merely copied these. One look at Bacon's paintings will prove that this is not the case. It is well-known that Bacon did not use models for his paintings and the images acted as catalysts for Bacon triggering other images, emotions or memories which then manifested themselves in his extraordinary paintings. Bacon was always reluctant to discuss the meaning of his paintings, insisting that they had none. Harrison goes farther than any book since the Sylvester interviews in proving that this is not the case and that the paintings were highly personal. The following two quotes from the end of the book are in my opinion right on the mark:

"..it should be remembered that most of Bacon's paintingswere explorations of selfhood". (p.228)

"He conveyed his inner life without compromise, but in code, in his paintings." (p.229)

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Bacon's art and Bacon the artist and man. The book is well presented, written and organized and the many images are fascinating. Though published by Thames & Hudson, it is printed and bound by Steidl an excellent German printer.

For more information on books about Francis Bacon, please see the listmania list I compiled. Readers are also welcome to email me for more information on Bacon books and web sites.

Review by Walter O. Koenig
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Amazon.com
This frank portrait of Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon (1909-92) contains enough juicy details about his lurid sex life and hard partying to satisfy even the most avid consumers of art-world gossip. But art critic Michael Peppiatt, who knew Bacon personally, also provides insightful analyses of his paintings and the nerve their anguished subject matter and technique struck in the uneasy years following World War II. In addition, Peppiatt illuminates the autobiographical roots of powerful works such as Pope I, Three Studies for a Crucifixion, and In Memory of George Dyer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Under the carpet view
Michael Peppiatt has resources for his book that defy belief.Francis Bacon was indeed an enigmatic person and artist and I suppose that the lurid details of his existence may shed some light on the paintings.But not, I think, to the degree that the author would have us believe.Some of the most glorious works of art have been created by personalities who border on beastial (Richard Wagner, Diego Rivera, Rodin et al) and so I suppose that knowing that Bacon was night gutter tramp may illuminate some of his portaits.The book does add to the literature on Bacon by introducing a number a fascinating photographs and for the reader who needs to know it all, well here is that cluttered closet.

fully penetrating and gripping
Great book....I had never seen a painting of Francis Bacon and had no idea who he was.That being said, I found that the book held my attention from start to finish.Partly it was Bacon's outlandish lifestyle and the strange cast of characters who ran through his life which kept me entertained.Partly it was the analysis of art and Bacon's art in general that worked.The author excelled on both counts, mixing colorful anecdotes with insightful analysis of the work.The author is a master of words -- while reading it you may find yourself in SOHO hanging with the bohemians at a seedy bar, or perhaps getting reamed by a gangster in a public bathroom.In any event, this is a book well worth your time and money.

An illuminating insight into an enigmatic artist and queen
"Francis Bacon : Anatomy of an Enigma" is an illuminating insight into the odd life of an artist who took great pains to prevent undue public prying while alive. Bacon felt that unnecessary publicity onhis own peculiar choice of lifestyle would strip his paintings of themystique they needed to work so effectively on the most visceral levels ofthe viewer's nervous system.

Michael Peppiatt takes us beyond the racksof carcasses and the pained, unsettled figures in claustrophobic rooms toglimpse a painter who was disarmingly immersed in all the pleasures thatlife can bestow. From his financial generosity and love of fine wines andgood fellowship, to the celebrated sexual experimentation and excess of hisyouth, Peppiatt's portrait of the artist is at once astonishing andhumorous in its revelations and salacious gossip. We learn the truth behindBacon's ill fated relationship with the gigolo-spiv George Dyer, whofeatures so prominently in the artists 60's portraits. We read aboutBacon's unlikely association with Ronnie and Reggie Kray, the gangstercelebrities of swinging Sixties London, as well as a whole host of otherunsavoury characters, the flotsam of a twilight `interzone' where Baconlurked and prowled as if to reinforce his determinedly cruel, sadistic viewof the world.

Other prominent Baconian characters are also sketched withhumour and compassion, including Muriel Belcher, acid-tongued proprietor ofthe Colony Room Club, Isabella Rawsthorne, Henrietta Moraes, George Deakinand Lucien Freud. Particularly hilarious is Henrietta Moraes' account ofthe origin of her famous nude photographs, many of which formed the basisfor Bacon's most memorable female nudes. Unsurprising for a Baconiancharacter, the photographer - George Deakin- having persuaded Henriettato pose with her legs a little further apart than necessary for theparticular needs of art, was caught attempting to sell her nude images tosailors in 1950s Soho. This and other splendidly sleazy stories transformwhat would otherwise be a bleak or pretentious subject matter into a tourde force of black humour that Samuel Beckett would be proud of.

Thisbiography is the document which avid Baconians have long been waiting for,the perfect companion to David Sylvestor's record of Bacon's conversationand poet Michel Leiris' various essays on the Bacon world view. It will bean essential text for all those who, like Bacon himself, struggle toachieve a totally honest and unvarnished opinion of human life in all itssqualor, depravity and cruelty whilst still finding the motivation not toslit one's own throat. Only recommended for those, like `the old queen'himself, with a particularly warped view of existence. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

modernist polemics
this is an excellent book for any artist or intellectual interested in modern art. Deleuze understands the canvas better than bacon,creating powerful justifications for the modern approach to art .
though people criticize him for unintelligablethinking,i feel it is more appropriate to say deleuze wages a war on the cliche, which includes our habitual methods ofthinking...to understand deleuze is to graduate from the sterile plane of habitual thought and enter a zone of creativity ..a zone that deleuze recognizes as the arena of art..

Cerebral Bacon
Gilles Deleuze is one of France's most important philosophers, and in that role he has influenced many branches of the arts with his scholarly investigation of the subjects he chooses to investigate.

Deleuze here writes about the 'sensational' aspects of Francis Bacon's art, art which he knows well, living with several of Bacon's works in his home.His exploration of the inspiration of Bacon's various trademark strokes and subjects grows naturally out of his applying philosophical musings on visual subjects: this book is a thesis on aesthetics for which Bacon is simply but powerfully the nidus.

Though the book was written in 1981, it remains one of the more fascinating books on aesthetics and the influences on Bacon's work along with sidebars on music, film, and writing that make the work more of an informed 'novel' than simply the intellectual volume it is.For this reader the addition of more visuals would have made more of an impact, but the writing (or translation from the French!) is so seethingly seductive that soon the visuals would become secondary.This is a tough read but a most important one.Grady Harp, July 06

new dimension about the will to knowledge
in this book, deleuze demonstrates that modern knowledge is no longer powered by dialectics or rationale, but by human sensuality. bacon's work is a good example to show that how art owns the ability to go beyonddiscourses. ... Read more

Book Description
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a genuine midwife of modernity. He was one of the first thinkers to visualise a future which would be guided by a cooperative science-based vision of bettering human welfare. In this the first critical edition of his greatest philosophical work since the
nineteenth-century, we find facing-page Latin translations and a thorough and detailed Introduction to the text. ... Read more

Book Description
Volume XI of The Oxford Francis Bacon comprises the first new critical edition of Bacon's most important philosophical work, the Novum Organum, for a hundred years. One of the foundation documents of early-modern philosophy, Novum Organum is edited in accordance with modern textual-critical principles for the first time. Graham Rees presents the only edition ever to include the original Latin text with a brand new, facing-page translation, and a thorough Introduction and detailed commentary of the text. The edition represents a major step towards the reinstatement of Bacon as a central figure in the history of early-modern philosophy, and will be essential reading for anyone studying the history of science and ideas in the seventeenth-century. ... Read more

Amazon.com
While he didn't exactly invent science, Francis Bacon is its best-known early promoter. The Advancement of Learning is his 1605 argument in favor of natural philosophy and inductive reasoning, and it is still vigorous and cogent today. Though using the language of Shakespeare, the book remains largely accessible to modern readers--still, a bit of classical knowledge is helpful.Shaking off the centuries-old domination of Aristotle, Bacon advocated building scientific theories on facts and observations rather than pure reason; little has changed in our approach to understanding the world since then. Of greatest interest to historians and philosophers of science, the book will also appeal to those curious about the underpinnings of today's naturalistic thinking.--Rob LightnerBook Description
Francis Bacon, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, remains one of the most effectual thinkers in European intellectual history. We can trace his influence from Kant in the 1700s to Darwin a century later. The Advancement of Learning, first published in 1605, contains an unprecedented and thorough systematization of the whole range of human knowledge. Bacon’s argument that the sciences should move away from divine philosophy and embrace empirical observation would forever change the way philosophers and natural scientists interpret their world.Download Description
An exceptional work about the use of science as a means to improve the human condition, using the power of reasoning to find the truth.Showing how theories should be based on observations and facts, not reason. Please Note:This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher.This eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable. ... Read more

Book Description
Sir Francis Bacon, hailed as the father of experimental science, conceived his Novum Organum or New Organon as a machine for aiding the reason in establishing truth. This is a new translation from Bacon's Latin into readable modern English, equipped with helpful explanatory notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A gem!
Though somewhat obscure, this book should be more widely known and read. Very enlightening and well ahead of it's time. Terrific, readable translation. You'll never look at the world again in the same way! ... Read more

Book Description
This volume inaugurates a new critical edition of the writings of the great English philosopher and sage Francis Bacon (1561-1626) - the first such complete edition for more than a hundred years. It contains six of Bacon's Latin scientific works, each accompanied by entirely new facing-page translations which, together with the extensive introduction and commentaries, offer fresh insights into one of the great minds of the early seventeenth century. ... Read more

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The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin’s Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history’s most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker’s art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.Download Description
THIS 10 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, by Francis Bacon. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564592286. ... Read more

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"Ninety-five percent of people are absolute fools, and they're bigger fools about painting than anything else. . . . Hardly anyone really feels about painting: they read things into it--even the most intelligent people--they think they understand it, but very, very few people are aesthetically touched by painting."--Francis Bacon

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. 230 illustrations, 84 in color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Through the glass, brightly
Few artists of the 20th century have engendered as much controversy while having such an enormous impact on coming to grips with personal demons on canvas as Francis Bacon.Once again the erudite scholar David Sylvester has written about his friend in a way that makes all other collections of images and gossips about Bacon pale in comparison.This book is a true "retrospective", not only because if can look at the entire output of this enormously gifted painter, but it puts Bacon in a perspective of comparison and study of influences that span all of art history. Sylvester manages all this with his usual eloquence of writing style.This book is an academic treatise, but is is also a biography that looks carefully and thoughtfully at the mad mind and paintings of Francis Bacon.Highly recommended for Bacon devotees as well as those who still seek to understand the past century's art journey.

Looking Back At Francis Bacon
A truly excellent addition to any art enthusiast's collection of artists' books and mongraphs.This piece is a must-have for any fan of the artist's work...it fills in quite a few holes regarding Bacon in relation to his work and his working process.Even if you are unfamiliar with the artist's work, you will find Sylvester's prose will easily entice you into taking a good long look at one man's dark, yet triumphant take on humanity and the world we live in.Brilliant! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

L'art mis en morceaux
Le style de Francis Bacon melange l'art d'antan, les artistes contemporains, le photojournalisme et le subconscient de Sigmund Freud. Par exemple, l'Etude d'apres le portrait du Pape Innocent X par Velazquez rappelle le Portrait du Cardinal Filippo Jacinto par Titian et, par des vetements ensanglantes, le style de l'egouttement par Jackson Pollock. Dans le Fragment de la crucifixion la figure qui bat les bras rappelle la Descente de la croix par Rubens et La chahut par Georges Seurat. Surtout dans ses peintures de la crucifixion du Christ, Francis Bacon devient photojournaliste, avec ses themes preferes de l'inhumanite, l'isolement, la trahison et le voyeurisme. Il devient psychanalyste dans le Portrait de Georges Dyer accroupi au style des baigneuses d'Edgar Degas, et dans l'Etude de la nue avec la figure dans le miroir c'est le style des voyeurs de l'arriere-scene par Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Alors lire le livre veut dire que l'on finit par apprendre un peu de l'histoire et de la technique de l'art.

Broken Art
FRANCIS BACON puts elements from the art of earlier centuries and the subconscious of Sigmund Freud into the bluntly powerful style of news photography. That style works for his themes of isolation, Peeping Toms, predatory people's inhumanity to others, and treachery, all of which can be found in his crucifixion scenes. I find his art cleverly disturbing, particularly in the way that he reworks Old and New Masters: Day- and Twilight-type figures from Michelangelo's de Medici tomb statues in "Triptych - studies of the human body"; Matthias Grunewald's "The mocking of Christ" in the bandaged eyes of the lone female witness to "Three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion"; Titian's "Portrait of Cardinal Filippo Archinto" and Jackson Pollock-type drip in the curtain veiling and bloodspattered robe of "Study after Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X"; Rubens' "Descent from the cross" and Georges Seurat's "La chahut" in the figure leaning over the T-shaped cross and the flapping arms showing successive motion in "Fragment of a crucifixion"; Diego Velazquez's "Las meninas" in the right panel-reflected artist of "Studies from the human body"; Rembrandt-type meat side in the European formal portrait-styled "Painting 1946"; Edgar Degas' tub-bathing women in "Portrait of George Dyer crouching"; Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec-type backstage observers in "Study of nude with figure in a mirror"; Marcel Duchamp's "The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even (the large glass)" in the frustrated, mechanical love of "Three studies of figures on beds"; and Henri Michaux in "Statues and figures in a street" full of tiny dark figures. So Hugh Davies and Sally Yard's helpful text and well-chosen illustrations help reader understanding of what modern art is about and how one painter fits with other times. The authors help me go beyond theme, into art technique: their book applies Max Doerner's THE MATERIALS OF THE ARTIST AND THEIR USE IN PAINTING, Hazel Harrison's MASTER STROKES, and Waldemar Januszczak's TECHNIQUES OF THE WORLD'S GREAT PAINTERS. ... Read more