Francis Bacon and the Masters

This exhibition at the Sainsbury Center presented both works by Bacon and by several old masters (including Titian, Van Gogh and Rubens) with which he had an "obsession" (although I don't entirely agree with this phrasing- don't all artists have an interest, or obsession, with the masterpieces shown?). 

Jonathan Jones of the Guardian calls the exhibition a "cruel exposure, a debacle": showing Bacon's work next to such greats as Bacon's beloved Velasquez, for instance, taints and diminishes his own work. While I agree that paintings such as Van Gogh's Landscape full of vibrancy and atmosphere outshine his own paintings this was not perhaps due to Bacon's work itself. Many of the works shown were unfinished- paintings the artist did not want exhibited, and some were even simply used as his palettes. Is it really fair to compare an artist's trash to Titian? Personally, I would be mortified if my work presented in this way. 

sketch of Michaelangelo Sculpture

Despite this, several of Bacon's pieces do stand out- I especially loved a portrait of Lisa Sainsbury. The dark background and white skin of the subject are typical of his work. They leave a ghostly impression, an imprint upon the canvas of the person that was once present. Vertical brush strokes streak her face, like rain drops on a window pane, washing away a reflection. This deterioration, the damaged glimpses of pale delicacy reminds me of Basil Hayward's master piece: Dorian. The same sense of beauty's fragility; how something so young and fresh shall be left scarred and altered by the passing of time.

 

“But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.” 

― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

For me, this strong awareness of mortality, of each day whithering more, presents a darker side to Rubens' portraits. Although the Old Manis frail and wrinkled the warm tones celebrate the life which is surely soon to end. Is Bacon just perhaps a realist, casting off the romantic veil that shrouds the masters' work? 

Lisa Sainsbury, Francis Bacon

In the final room of the exhibition his works take on a more modern feel, revealing his contemporary influences of abstract expressionism. Vast planes of colours are interjected with fleshy, organic takes on the human form. My personal favourite is the bull fighting triptych; he uses shapes that stray from traditional art vocabulary (stylised circles and arrows) which create even more of a jolt when juxtaposed against the raw, wounded leg on one canvas. The sterile empty planes place the pain in a clinical setting- a hospital? The connotations of this again being creeping death and mortality. 

Triptych. Francis Bacon

I really enjoyed this exhibition and do believe that the tortured existentialism of Bacon's work does indeed stand up against older venerable master pieces. As an artist, it is interesting for me to see Bacon's working methods, however,I feel it is unjust to present these as part of the same context, if not for the sake of the audience's pleasure, then for the artist himself.