Francis Bacon at Tate Britain

Francis Bacon at Tate Britain

09 November, 2008
by: Dominick

My first awareness of Francis Bacon dates from the early 1960s when his paintings were shown, along with contemporaries, in the galleries of Bond Street. I suppose that in those days a few thousand pounds would have secured one of his most compelling subjects, a self-portrait head or the image of a friend.

The present exhibition at Tate Britain includes a number of these iconic examples of usually tortured often screaming humanity. Millions of pounds would now be the deserved asking price for these pieces.

The portraits are among a wealth of gripping work, divided for this exhibition into 10 rooms, with subtly differing themes, but linked by Bacon's unmistakably grim vision of humanity and his brilliantly expressive technique. The gallery's short note on the show encapsulates what is happening on the walls: 'During the 1960s the larger part of Bacon's work shifted focus to paintings of his close friends in attempts to both portray the human condition and reinvent portraiture'.

At his easel he certainly impressed, and retained his grim view, while also inspiring a number of admiring fellow artists, none of whom in my judgement matched his imagination and his violent use of vivid colours reaching out from his large canvasses. Bacon's technique includes distortion of the human body, and its background, to become almost his signature.

This language in paint featured on the occasion I met the artist. He had decided to take a holiday from the energetic chaos of the Colony Club in Soho, and to visit the (undoubtedly) calmer atmosphere of the Blakeney Hotel in the village of that name on the north Norfolk coast.

As insurance, he took with him the telephone number of my family, so that he could find someone sympathetic nearby if need be.

The need did arise. Bacon's room looked out over the tranquil marsh occupied only by sea-birds. But for just four days out of the whole year, there took place the local regatta, attended by the noisiest of fun-fairs with dodgem cars and merry-go-rounds just outside the unfortunate Bacon's window.

In despair he telephoned my parents - whom he had never met - and was immediately rescued from his plight and bidden to their drawing room, a safe six miles inland. The event was not without apprehension. My father took the line, as the son of an excellent figurative painter, that such distortions as Bacon and his followers favoured, were to be excoriated compared to the 'real thing'.

We feared the collision between my father the old-fashioned connoisseur of 'realistic' art, and the greatest living exponent of the violently abstract.

As it turned out the two men got on like a house on fire, and we discovered that afternoon that Francis Bacon was considerate and indeed gentle in his conversation. So much so that even now, forty years later, it is a shock to see the lurid products of his brush at this brilliant exhibition, and to have had first-hand knowledge of the gentleness of the amazing artist.


Francis Bacon is at Tate Britain until 4 January 2009.

To get the most out of a visit to the Francis Bacon exhibition, click here to read Spoonfed's Francis Bacon Weekend Guide.

Click here to read Tom's review of Francis Bacon at Tate Britain.

Click here to see all London art.
Click here to see all London exhibitions.
Click here for things to do in Bloomsbury.

Dominick