Book Description
From tormented self-images to brutal portrayals of friends and fellow artists, the portraits of Francis Bacon account for one of the most remarkable aspects of the work of this great British painter. His stylistic distortions of classicism and his famous deformations have changed the traditional genre of portraiture more drastically than the work of any other artist of the twentieth century. Originally published on the occasion of a major retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits is the first book dedicated to this aspect of his work. Milan Kundera, the famed Czech novelist, provides a perceptive introduction explaining his personal response to Bacon's work, exploring the paradox that lies in the faithfulness of the distorted images, and likening Bacon's genius to that of Samuel Beckett, both working at the outer limits of their art. An important essay by art historian France Borel sets Bacon's works in the context of his life and influences and explains his approach to portraiture. With superb reproductions of more than 130 studies and portraits, including those of Lucian Freud, George Dyer, Mick Jagger, and Isabel Rawsthorne, Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits offers new insight into these radical and disturbing images. Many details are included, revealing for the first time the varied textures of Bacon's paint surface. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Face Off
Francis Bacon jolted the art world in a way that is only now, some nine years after his death, being fully appreciated.During the final years of his bizarre life he achieved fame and museum acceptance and the accompanying high figure prices for his canvases.And of course soon after his death there was the usual debate about whether he was a painter or a one note song. This beautifully presented volume seems to dispell the latter, as here is documentation of all the head-only portraits Bacon painted of his friends and of himself.His usual "brutal vision" seems less forced when the paintings are accompanied by photogrphs of the models:some of Bacon's friends were fairly distorted before his brush hit the canvas!This book allows the reader to examine a narrow part of Bacon's output and in doing so focuses keenly on his view of the world, his pallete and his technique.Very fine essays by Milan Kundera and France Borel enhance this sensitive tribute to one of the more important 20th Century figurative painters.

Art Meets Occultism, and not for the first time...
For those of you who have spent considerable time reading about the Templars, Illuminatus, Masons, et. al. then this book would be of no shock to you.Francis Bacon in the disquise of an artist, in the disquise of the painted. The art itself lends itself to the greater mystery, and as such is a must have for any enthusiast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A biographical portrait of Bacon
Francis Bacon was a man filled with contradiction. He was consumed by two ambitions: 1) an insatiable thirst for knowledge and, 2) an endless "striving for political favor and position." The latter ambition finally did him in, bringing about his impeachment from Parliament for taking bribes, losing the high position (Lord Chancellor) he had spent his whole life striving for. Five years of life were left to Bacon after his disgrace, time spent in scientific and writing pursuits, but the damage was done.

Ms. Bowen does not write a full and detailed biography here, but rather more a profile or "evocation." She sacrifices the impartial and detached position of the historian clearly in her prologue by declaring her great admiration for Bacon. And although she doesn't hide or ignore his faults, it's difficult to read any page and not feel Bowen's awe and respect for her subject. There is much to admire about Bacon: his broad and deep learning (he seemed to be an "expert" on every subject, from law to botany); his wit (this a verbal exchange between Bacon and his arch-enemy Edward Coke: "Mr. Bacon!" says Coke. "If you have any tooth against me, pluck it out, for it will do you more hurt than all the teeth in your head will do you good." "Mr. Attorney!" (Coke was the Attorney General), retorts Bacon. "I respect you, I fear you not, and the less you speak of your greatness, the more I will think of it." (Ouch!); his books such as NOVUM ORGANUM and THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, still regarded highly today; his life-long wish to found a university in England that would employ the scientific method in its pursuit of knowledge and not the old schoolman methods.

But there is also much to disdain: his bluntness; his naivete with regard to his enemies; his inability to control his spending impulses; his almost outrageous ostentation with his scores of servants, men in waiting, etc. He also had what came to become a most unpopular belief, that the king was above the law.

What makes Bowen's portrait of Bacon worth reading is her marvelous writing style. She is a descendant of the old-school of historical writing (Parkman and Prescott come to mind) that was as much of a literary bent as an historical one. She writes beautiful prose, worthy of her subject and the age in which he lived. Reading her book is a most enjoyable experience.
... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Francis Bacon: The Formative Years
The shelves in the art section of bookstores, public and private libraries contain many publications about the important 20th Century figurative artist Francis Bacon: one would think there was little left to be said about the bizarre genius who influenced so many artists and thinkers.But this new volume by long admired proponent of Francis Bacon's work and historical significance, Michael Peppiatt, sheds even more light on how Bacon arrived at the point of creating such disturbing and magnificently painted works.

Born in 1909 Francis Bacon did not become a serious artist until the mid 1930s, electing to travel to Berlin and Paris and other magnetic hubs plying his trade as a hustler and effete and along the way making significant statements in the decorative arts and design.Peppiatt takes us from the late 1940s when Bacon's few paintings were of animal life and objects of design elements into the period of the 1950s when he explored the figure, developed his 'caged figure' theme and stretched his portraiture to extremes beyond which few other artists have dared go.It is the combination of history, drawings, previously unpublished reproductions of some paintings, photographs, and a collection of letters Bacon wrote to various people that Peppiatt writes with such mastery of description of Bacon's oeuvre that makes this volume so readable and memorable.

The well designed and produced book served as a catalog for a traveling exhibition of the works described in the book.It is not meant to be a definitive total biography of the artist: Peppiatt's 1996 'Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma' is the primer on the artist's life and work.But it is in closer studies such as this book covers that we discover more of the secrets and motivations that have established Francis Bacon as the important artist he became.Highly recommended.Grady Harp, September 07

The man behind the artist
This is the catalogue for a traveling exhibition (England and the U.S.)focusing on a crucial decade in Bacon's art, when he really revealed himself as a master, transcending the tradition of figurative painting. Many rarely seen works are illustrated (e.g. the portraits of the Sainsburies, one of the artist's first patrons). The book ends with a review of the letters written by Bacon to his first dealer and to his patrons, moving letters where he often asks for money loans, sometimes in a humble and desperate tone that betrays the mundane behind the genius. A valuable addition to the literature on Bacon. ... Read more

Book Description
Francis Bacon's New Organon, published in 1620, was revolutionary in its attempt to give formal philosophical shape to a new and rapidly emerging experimental science. It challenged the entire edifice of the philosophy and learning of Bacon's time, and left its mark on all subsequent discussions of scientific method. This volume presents a new translation of the text into modern English by Michael Silverthorne, together with an introduction by Lisa Jardine that sets the work in the context of Bacon's scientific and philosophical activities.Download Description
When the New Organon appeared in 1620, part of a six-part programme of scientific inquiry entitled 'The Great Renewal of Learning', Francis Bacon was at the high point of his political career, and his ambitious work was groundbreaking in its attempt to give formal philosophical shape to a new and rapidly emerging experimentally-based science. Bacon combines theoretical scientific epistemology with examples from applied science, examining phenomena as various as magnetism, gravity, and the ebb and flow of the tides, and anticipating later experimental work by Robert Boyle and others. His work challenges the entire edifice of the philosophy and learning of his time, and has left its mark on all subsequent philosophical discussions of scientific method. This volume presents a new translation of the text into modern English by Michael Silverthorne, and an introduction by Lisa Jardine that sets the work in the context of Bacon's scientific and philosophical activities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Best publication of Bacon's New Organon
I had to write a research paper on Francis Bacon's The New Organon for my History of Ideas VI class and this book was the definitive source for that paper. The introduction by Lisa Jardine is stellar. There is so much invaluable content and critical commentary in her introduction it was overwhelming. This edition by Cambridge University Press is sufficient for anyone who wants to become decently familiar with Bacon's The New Organon and his contribution to empiricism and the scientific revolution. It is an especially valuable source for anyone who has to do a substantial research paper for a philosophy course. I would not want to do without Jardine's introduction and the notes if I were writing a paper on The New Organon. I also would like to mention that though this book is not exhaustive in its scope it is very thorough in regards to The New Organon. If one is looking for more historical content on Francis Bacon the man, they should look elsewhere. This work only provides a very short chronology of the highlights in Bacon's life, but nothing beyond this. However, when I was working on my research paper, I favored this book amongst the fifteen to twenty others I was using for the sake of researching The New Organon. Just keep that in mind coming from a UK bound student who reads and writes papers 24/7 as if it were his job, literally. I assure you, you will no be disappointed with this work on your bookshelf. It will prove an invaluable source for future academic study and research for any serious scholar. For the rest who are not so serious academically, or who simply are not students and want a one-night stand with Bacon's The New Organon, this will suffice beyond measure.

New Translation, New Readers
This is a very clear and readily assimilated translation of what may be considered the manifesto of the scientific revolution.Translating a seventeenth century Englishman, writing in latin, back into english: shouldit be the english he would have written at that time, or is a moreahistorical rendering ppropriate? Sometimes I wondered if the translationmight be a little too up-to-date in its sensibilities and I found myselfreturning to the latin original to be reassured that Bacon's originalintent had been rendered. Although the text is admirably clear a few morefootnotes would have been welcome. Those provided are either somewhatcryptic and brief notes of textual readings, or on the other hand, notes onpersonages that seem to pander too much to the ignorance of today'sstudents - vero media est. Though the second part of Novum Organon seem butlittle removed from the alchemists den, Bacon's first part is as relevantto the scientific enterprise today as it ever was - modern physicists andgeneticists should consider carefully whether, as aphorism LXIV warns,empiricism may be a greater danger than sophistic dogma ever was. ... Read more

Amazon.com
For modern readers--especially those in the sciences who revere him as the father of the inductive method--Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is the model of an English Renaissance man whose towering intellectual achievements somewhat paradoxically set him floating above mundane historical particulars. British academics Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart fling Bacon back into the hurly-burly of Elizabethan and Jacobean politics, where he unquestionably belongs. Indeed, their magnificently detailed rendering of Bacon's bumpy progression to the pinnacle of royal office-holding, as James I's lord chancellor (he was forced to "retire" in 1621 after a bribery scandal), makes his scientific and philosophical contributions even more remarkable. How on earth did he find time to write The Advancement of Learning (1605) and Novum Organum (1620) at all? In the authors' deliciously dense re-creation, notable for their shrewd evaluations of often misleading written source material, Bacon seems almost exclusively preoccupied with intriguing for promotion, struggling to pay debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle, and currying favor with both Elizabeth's and James's male favorites. (The latter tactic leading to contemporary charges of "sodomy" that the authors do not necessarily dismiss.) Some may regret that this warts-and-all portrait does not spend more time on Bacon's books, but Jardine and Stewart brilliantly succeed in their stated goal of providing "a rich context for those works." Seldom has a scholarly tome so palpably conveyed the gritty, sweaty, faction-ridden reality of being a working politician at the turn of the 17th century. --Wendy Smith Book Description
The statesman, scientist, and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) lived a divided life. Was he a noble scholar, or a conniving political crook? Was he a homosexual? Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart draw upon previously untapped sources to create a controversial, nuanced portrait of the quintessential "Renaissance man," one whose achievements, while enormous, were nonetheless sadly circumscribed by his class and station. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

All about the life, little about the man
This book is in many ways superb.The writing is smooth, the judgments intelligently based on evidence, the archival research prodigious.But it leaves one with oddly little sense of Bacon the man.Partly that's because the authors don't speculate, confining themselves to the historical record.That's a great virtue, but it also means we never get a sense of Bacon's relations with his wife, or even his sexuality.We hear about his chronically poor health, but not what his symptoms suggest to a modern doctor.Also, the authors don't examine Bacon'swritings in any sort of detail.This is definitely a "life and times", not a "life and letters."

The authors rarely step back to give an overall picture.There are no scene-setting panoramas, no authorial intrusions to explain why, for example, they decided to go into such detail about the activities of Bacon's brother Anthony.One gathers that the authors believe Anthony and Francis were working closely together, but I would have liked to have their thinking explained more fully.(Although Anthony is practically the main character of the first quarter of the book, his death is mentioned only in passing.)

These criticisms reflect my occasional irritation with the book, but they don't detract from the authors' tremendous achievement.If the authors had included everything I missed, the book would have been quite a bit fatter, and that would have been a negative, too.As it is, the book is (just barely) small enough to be read without risk of injury, unlike so many other modern biographies.

The book contains a great deal about Bacon's political activities, as another reviewer has noted.That's because a great deal of Bacon's life was occupied with political activities.If all you want to read about is Bacon's scientific works, you shouldn't read a biography of their author.In the case of Isaac Newton, there is practically no difference between the life and the scientific work.But in Bacon's case, there is not only a difference but a dichotomy.He was a successful lawyer and politician who also happened to kick-start the Scientific Revolution.

To summarize, Hostage to Fortune provides all the details, but not the outline.My advice would be to familiarize yourself with the basic course of Bacon's life and his achievements before reading this book, so you can fully appreciate its richness.

Mixed Feelings
A powerhouse of academic scholarship, this book is the most tedious and boring biography I have ever read.Too many pages on Bacon's political career, too little on his scientific achievements.

Bacon for sceptics.
While the book starts slowly with what seems to be an overly detailed account of Bacon's family and their activities, it is a clear headed and balanced account of a man who achieved fame across the centuries, as well as in his own time---but never great virtue, character or happiness in his own life.It is quite readable, and even engrossing in the second half.Scholars will appreciate the careful documentation and extensive reference to sources and supporting materials. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The first in-depth survey of Bacon's 7,000+ piece studio
His London studio, portrayed on the cover of FRANCIS BACON'S STUDIO, may look like a mess, but Francis Bacon was one of the most significant post-war painters and his studio, both home and workplace, was key to producing his art. His studio housed thousands of items central to his works and has been untouched since his death in 1992: it was donated in 1998 to the Dublin City Gallery and today curators have made it into a showpiece and work of art itself. The studio's deconstruction revealed over 7,500 objects from photos to illustrated publications, slashed canvases and his final unfinished work: FRANCIS BACON'S STUDIO provides the first in-depth survey of the studio and is essential for art library holdings and any student of Bacon's works.

An Even More In-Depth Coverage of Bacon's Infamous Studio
Though there have been several excellent books written about the contents of Francis Bacon's 7 Reece Mews studio in London, the birthplace of his masterpiece paintings that still haunt the public and the historian minds, this hefty volume by Margarita Cappock offers more.Originally conceived as the book to document the 1998 move of Bacon's studio form Kensington, London to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin where it remains an historic site, Cappock sorts and sifts through the bits of treasure and trash that influenced Bacon's inspiration for his future paintings.

Cappock betters the other books on this subject by illuminating the chards and tatters that most significantly influenced Bacon's thought development and because the book is so extensively illustrated, she is able to place side by side the instigating artifacts with the complete works.This book is by far the most intensive and exhaustive study of the influence of Bacon's studio and its detrituson the evolution of Bacon's paintings and as such belongs in the library of all Bacon scholars and enthusiasts.Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 06
... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Amazon.com
This book accompanies the traveling retrospective that inaugurated the newly reopened Yale Center for British Art in January 1999. Francis Bacon (1909-1992), the eminent British painter known for his large, colorful, and grotesque paintings of the human body, was very controlling of what was written about his work during his lifetime; this book marks the first time that each painting is individually discussed in print. Included in the book are essays that provide great insight into Bacon's life and personality. Especially revealing is an essay by Michael Peppiatt, Bacon's close friend and biographer (he wrote Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma). Bacon lived a life of heavy drinking, gambling, and socializing, and Peppiatt discusses this lifestyle in relation to the work: "Bacon himself pretended he painted particularly well with a hangover. 'My mind simply crackles with electricity after one of those evenings.'"

Along with beautiful reproductions of the paintings are some photographs of Bacon's studio, which is astounding in its filth. The floor is littered with various detritus; brushes and paint tubes are everywhere. Bacon's intensity is as evident in these studio shots as in the paintings with contorted figures and grimacing, bruise-colored faces. You can practically watch the human body decay in front of your eyes. --Jennifer Cohen ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

francis bacon is back from the grave
i love that francis bacon is credited in the title above as 'illustrator" in dennis farr's little retrospective.bacon who sought to avoid illustration in his paintings by creating a reality, often relying somewhat on chance, that if inaccurate was in his mind 'greater' than the truth.this taken from a very moving quote from van gogh, whose letters and paintings francis studied closely.the reverse landscape in question is in fact reversed - its like an error card.otherwise the text is intelligent and the body of work is well chosen but there are so many bacon paintings its hard to find a comprehensive publication.

Magnum Opus
Well, here it all is - the paintings, the analysis of the person, the milieu that aided in the production of this prodigious artist, brilliant essays that go further than predessors into the hows and whys of Francis Bacon - the much anticipated Retrospective book and exhibition.One of the finest aspects of this book is the placement of descriptions of the background and the implications of each painting adjacent to the work.No search party needed here.If only as much attention to detail would have been spent on the four color separations of the works then this would truly have been the definitive work about one of the most exciting painters of the last century...AND chronicler of the disintegration of society and mentality brought about by the dissecting sciences.

A Bacon Treasure
If you want to add an extraordinary book to your library, this is the one to buy. Francis Bacon's works, and words, are presented in a profoundly moving volume,with exquisite reproductions and intelligent essays bycurators and friends.

Bacon's haunting, provocative creatures writhe withintense agony. They reflect an inborn fatality and atheism, and arerelentless in their unflinching starkness of vision. He asks no mercy,gives no quarter, and stubbornly refuses to soften the nihilism of hisviews.

If you can't afford one of his canvases, this book is an admirablesubstitute.

A flawed masterpiece?
At first glance, this catalog is a marvel--heavy paper stock, literate commentary. On closer examination, however, you'll note that in several cases, the colour plates do not reflect the paintings' reality. To wit, theLucien Freud triptych, where the background color field's yellow issubstantially different from the work as viewed in the Retrospective. Thisproblem appears in several other plates. But the worst lapse is in theMorrocan landscape (title escapes me at the moment). That catalog image isactually REVERSED, or 'flopped' in photo terms.Note the red in theforeground is on the wrong side of the painting. How could Abrams makessuch a serious error? For a volume costing $60, no less. Anyone who has thegood fortune to view this magnificent exhibit will see the problems.

An excellent overview of the artists' work.
What I found most appealing about this retrospective (and by extension, the exhibition that it catalogs) is the great variety of material that is covered.In many collections of Bacon's work, certain (generally earlier)facets of his ouvre (the wild animals, the paintings of Van Gogh, etc) areglossed over in favor of others (the Crucifixions, his output during the60's, the portraits of George Dyer, etc).This retrospective, however,gives an amazingly well-balanced view of the artist's career.

Even thoughsome of Bacon's "major" paintings, like "Painting(1946)" and "Study After Velazquez's Portrait of Pope InnocentX" are not included, this is more than made up for by the sheervariety of the material that has been covered.The commentary thataccompanies the paintings is good, and while not extensive, thebiographical information and snippets of interviews are very compelling. Anyone with an appreciation for Bacon's work should have this book. ... Read more

Book Description
Francis BaconCommitment and Conflict Wieland Schmied

Francis Bacon is given a highly insightful re-examination through critical commentary, brilliant reproductions and private photographs in this beautifully produced flexi edition.

The existential anxiety of modern man, the inescapability of death, and the catastrophe of loneliness are some of the themes that wend their way through Francis Bacon's work, much of which took the form of triptychs or tortured self-portraits. In this comprehensive study of one of the twentieth century's most passionately committed artists, Wieland Schmied offers an insightful overview of Bacon's life, analyzes his paintings and examines the creative processes they embody. He explores in depth Bacon's subtle use of space, the development of his imagery, idiosyncratic painting technique, and place in the pantheon of twentieth-century artists.

Wieland Schmied is the author of many books on twentieth-century art. He lives in Munich, Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

too small to read
The type was so small it was almost unreadable.It's as if the book was a small, cheap version of a large art book.

Not what but How
This is a fine book, content is five stars. My problem is with the pt. size of the text. I would say the type in this book is 1/3 the size of most books. If you use glasses or have trouble reading small type this is not a book you will be able to read on the subway. Photos, reproductions, information and price are very good. Have fun reading it, just know that if the lay out was different the text could have been larger.

Definitive Volume
Of all the books in print about the works of Francis Bacon, so many of them can be browsed without paying much attention to the commentary.Not here.This volume is extravagantly illustrated with many lesser known paintings by Francis Bacon, but it doesn't stop there.There is a very fine chronological timeline with photographs which show us the progression of the artist, his friends, lovers, influencing photographs, and interactions with other artists of his day.There is also a complete Exibition Schedule which holds some fascinating bits of information even to the avid Bacon fan. There are many photographs of Bacon's infamous studio in all its squallid splendor - some with the artist, some after his death.For sheer joy in getting to know a troubled genius, this book should be high on the list of recommended texts. ... Read more

Book Description

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Scientific Revolution, exerted a powerful influence on the intellectual development of the modern world. He also led a remarkably varied and dramatic life as a philosopher, writer, lawyer, courtier, and statesman. Although there has been much recent scholarship on individual aspects of Bacon's career, Perez Zagorin's is the first work in many years to present a comprehensive account of the entire sweep of his thought and its enduring influence. Combining keen scholarly and psychological insights, Zagorin reveals Bacon as a man of genius, deep paradoxes, and pronounced flaws.

The book begins by sketching Bacon's complex personality and troubled public career. Zagorin shows that, despite his idealistic philosophy and rare intellectual gifts, Bacon's political life was marked by continual careerism in his efforts to achieve advancement. He follows Bacon's rise at court and describes his removal from his office as England's highest judge for taking bribes. Zagorin then examines Bacon's philosophy and theory of science in connection with his project for the promotion of scientific progress, which he called "The Great Instauration." He shows how Bacon's critical empiricism and attempt to develop a new method of discovery made a seminal contribution to the growth of science. He demonstrates Bacon's historic importance as a prophetic thinker, who, at the edge of the modern era, predicted that science would be used to prolong life, cure diseases, invent new materials, and create new weapons of destruction. Finally, the book examines Bacon's writings on such subjects as morals, politics, language, rhetoric, law, and history. Zagorin shows that Bacon was one of the great legal theorists of his day, an influential philosopher of language, and a penetrating historian.

Clearly and beautifully written, the book brings out the richness, scope, and greatness of Bacon's work and draws together the many, colorful threads of an extraordinarily brilliant and many-sided mind.

Customer Reviews (1)

misses the boat
Zagorin has not added much to the great mystery of Francis Bacon. He has written a superficial understanding of the life and as a result left out many salient aspectsthat would have provided greater insight into Bacon'smotivations and philosophy. Save your money on this one and buy a copy ofAlfred Dodd's:"Francis Bacon's Personal Life Story"instead. ... Read more

Book Description
The Essays, Bacon's chief contributions to literature, were published at various times between 1597 and 1625. This collection contains fifty-eight essays, masterfully written with a spirit of superior confidence. All forms of knowledge are subjected to the interpretation of Bacon's views on life.Compiled from his other works, the essays were intended only as private notes for the perusal of a few friends. ... Read more

Book Description
One of the most powerful painters of our age, Francis Bacon lived and worked for the last thirty years of his life in a modest building in London's South Kensington. After he died in 1992, access was granted to award-winning photographer Perry Ogden to work undisturbed for days on end to produce this riveting record of the house and its contents. In the studio itself, thirty years of inspired artistic endeavor had accumulated unchecked: the slashed and discarded canvases scattered across the floor; the brushes, rags, and tins encrusted with paint; the doors and walls used as impromptu palettes; the piles of photographs of friends and models; the crumpled and torn pages of magazines and books that served as a stimulus for Bacon's work; the notes, sketches, and ideas for paintings jotted down and then cast aside; the last unfinished self-portrait on the easel. For some of those close to Bacon, the studio was a heroic statement, a work of art in its own right, secretly constructed over many years to distill and give form to his aesthetic intentions. Now in this astonishing book we are invited to take a privileged look around this private space, to become intimate witnesses to the amazing conditions in which Bacon lived and worked, to gain unrivaled insights into how, why, and what he painted. 60 color photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

'Finding Order in Chaos': The Creative Space of Francis Bacon
Views of the studio at 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington, London, where Francis Bacon spent the last thirty years of his life from 1961 - 1992, inform us of many aspects of Bacon's life and art.The studio is notorious among artists' studios in that it is nearly non-navigable, so strew are the walls and floors and easels with the memorabilia and photos, drawings and articles that ultimately resulted in some of the most exciting art created in the 20th Century.

This very fine book represents a catalogue of the project to move Bacon's studio intact to Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin where the curators have seized on documenting every tube, brush, tossed away sketch, collaged photos, small reproductions of famous artists' works (such as the Velasquez popes), bits of cloth and canvas, andphotos of his models, his lovers, and his associates - a daunting task but one so important that it takes this book to define.

Richly photographed by Perry Ogden who manages to capture the atmosphere of claustrophobia that pervades the studio, this book is indispensable to the scholars who find Bacon's visual influences as important as his paintings.The writing that accompanies this photographic essay is highly informative and immensely readable: Gallery Director Barbara Dawson offers a probing insightful examination of Bacon's personal and artistic history in 'Francis Bacon's Studio: A Stimulating Solitude' and the Curator of the Francis Bacon Collection essays 'Finding order in chaos: Francis Bacon's Studio contents'.

Though the book is small (61 pages) it is of utmost importance to those fascinated with the expressionist art of Bacon.An added bonus is a brief but thorough Timeline of Bacon's life.Highly Recommended.Grady Harp, January 06

Essential coda
An unusual, beautiful little book for the shelves of Francis Bacon fans. The photographs are beautiful, exhaustively document this legendary, but little known space, and have a haunting quality that complements other Bacon monographs. One senses the vibrancy of the artist's life, and only then the realization that, but for the fact he is deceased, the reader would not be holding this book and having this "privileged" view. Very strange! ... Read more

Book Description
For years, a popular debate has been raging about whether Shakespeare was really the author of the many plays and poems published under his name. Doubters argue that Shakespeare could not have accomplished such a great feat, pointing instead to other well-known figures. Richard Ramsbotham offers a completely different perspective by reexamining the available evidence and by introducing unexplored aspects of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-scientific research. The author discusses Shakespeare's life as an actor, mysteries of the debate such as the enigmatic Psalm 46, and the persistent question of Francis Bacon's connection with Shakespeare.

Recently, a movement has been gaining ground that sees Bacon himself as the covert writer of the great works attributed to Shakespeare. Not content with this radical claim, that movement also wishes to place Bacon on the primary pedestal of British civilization, as a kind of patron saint of the modern scientific age. The author provides substantial confirmation of a definite connection between Shakespeare and Bacon, but one that radically challenges the conclusions of the Baconian movement. The author also opens remarkable new perspectives on King James I and his connections not only with Shakespeare and Bacon but also with Jakob Böhme, Rudolf II, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and the original Globe Theatre.

Published 400 years after the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, Who Wrote Bacon? offers a timely contribution to these themes, and shows how they remain critically important to our understanding of the twenty-first century.

Includes eight pages of B/W plates. ... Read more

Book Description