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Publisher's Weekly Review
Phenomenal drinking habits, chronic sleep deprivation, and a dangerous taste for the lowlife didn't seem to dampen Bacon's productivity. Perhaps they even fueled it. During his turbulent lifetime (1909-1992), Bacon was called variously "the most important and original artist of postwar Europe" and "the greatest painter of flesh since Renoir." His images of screaming mouths, writhing bodies and elongated, headless necks were intended to be an assault on the viewer's nervous system; they conveyed, to use Art International editor Peppiatt's characteristically deft phrase, "the snarl of rage and the bellow of fear" that lurk in every human being. A challenge to biographers, Bacon manipulated his public persona and was tight-lipped about his genteel Irish origins. Peppiatt, however, had the advantage of a 30-year friendship with the artist in writing this full-scale, psychological biography. Here he explores the contradictions of Bacon's psyche: guilt about being homosexual versus a desire to flout convention; atheism mixed with an obsession with religious imagery; egotism tempered by near-saintly generosity. The flamboyantly promiscuous and eccentric Bacon lives in Peppiatt's descriptions ("he walked with a springily weaving step, as if the ground rolled beneath his feet like the deck of a ship at sea"). Peppiatt doesn't ignore Bacon's dark side, but overall, this anatomy lesson is not an autopsy, but the unveiling of a sympathetic portrait. Illustrations. (June) FYI: In April, Thames & Hudson will publish Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits which included 223 color illustrations, an introduction by Milan Kundera and an essay by France Borel ($60 216p ISBN 0-500-09266-4) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
In his time, the late Francis Bacon was regarded both as England's ``most important living painter'' and as a ``cheap sensationalist.'' This excellent biography reveals a dramatic self- mythologizer who painted brilliantly enough to realize his self- cast, epic-tragic role. Bacon created a closely guarded myth of his excessive, tumultuous personal life, never wanting his enigmatic, powerfully disturbing paintings to be explained away with a simple biographical anecdote. He also blocked biographies from being published, and destroyed many of his paintings that didn't pass muster. Peppiatt, a friend of the artist's and the editor of Art International, respects Bacon's controlling, antireductionist instinct--not out of deference, but because no brief catalog of life experiences could explain the complex horror of any one of Bacon's paintings. The artist spent his early years in Ireland and England. He was as flamboyantly gay as the times would allow and was thrown out of the family by his father, who caught him wearing Mrs. Bacon's underwear. He traveled to Berlin and Paris and lived on the edge, associating with high society and low-lifes alike--a social fluency he retained his entire life. He endured, and sometimes enjoyed, beatings from various lovers. He drank to excess, took pills, and slept little. Ultimately, Bacon synthesized an artistic territory distinctly his own; he was ``insufficiently surreal'' to join the surrealists and too figurative to be an abstractionist. The unsettling power of his work eventually brought throngs of visitors to the most prestigious galleries in Europe and America. And his appeal endures: A recent exhibition in France drew up to five thousand visitors a day. Peppiatt stalks and bags elusive prey: a better understanding of a disturbing body of work created by a man who lived inscrutably, in purposeful chaos. (illustrations, not seen)
Booklist Review
Francis Bacon (1909^-92) was a painter of unflinching intensity who focused on the human form in the grip of powerful, if not overwhelming, emotions. Borel's volume contains a magnificent series of Bacon's icons of friends, lovers, and himself, all rendered masklike in their contortions, layered textures, and opulent hues. Some are grotesque, others noble, but all are arresting and mythically resonant. Art historian Borel and Milan Kundera, who contributed the introduction to this beautifully produced book, provide some clues to Bacon's inspirations, but basically, they allow his paintings to speak for themselves. It is biographer Peppiatt's task to provide a portrait of the portrait-painter in his book, a comprehensive study of this major modern artist. Editor of Art International, Peppiatt first met Bacon in 1963 and was instantly captivated by the painter's freedom from constraint both as an artist and as a homosexual. Peppiatt takes pains to balance his revelations about Bacon's extraordinary life with abiding respect for his indelible work. He chronicles Bacon's wretched rural Irish childhood and disturbed relationship with his horse-trainer father, who, appalled by his son's effeminacy, had him whipped, then banished 16-year-old Francis altogether after catching him wearing his mother's underwear. Thrilled to be on his own, Bacon frolicked in the homosexual underworld of Berlin, Paris, and London, living by his wits and considerable charm until a show of Picasso's work jump-started his artistic sensibility and he taught himself to paint. Peppiatt, sensitive and insightful, draws convincing connections between Bacon's childhood, proclivity for sadomasochism, and the silent screams and "strangled confessions" of his paintings, measured disclosures that deepen the power and mystery of Bacon's art while bringing the artist--truly a fascinating man--into sharper focus. --Donna Seaman
Choice Review
This is the most recent biography of the British painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992). Michael Peppiatt, an art critic and editor of Art International who knew Bacon over 30 years, has written a skillful, mostly evenhanded book that goes deeply into the artist's painting. Bacon was notorious for creating his own biography and for encouraging the eccentric myths that surround him. Earlier writers have had to rely on much the same material, such as the interviews that Bacon gave (the best published by David Sylvester), or the research of art historians who studied the works. Peppiatt's is an in-depth work reflecting original research, and he had the use of personal information derived from many conversations with the artist. He also had access to the documentary materials, photographs, etc., that were found in Bacon's studio after his death. Peppiatt writes extensively about Bacon's homosexuality and his intense, fantasy-ridden life in the European demimonde. He connects Bacon's life to the content of his paintings, and he explains his origins in Picasso and surrealism together with his considerable debt to historical art. Peppiatt further places Bacon in the context of postwar British and international art, and in the company of painters like Lucian Freud, Frank Auerback, Graham Sutherland, and others. Illustrated with photographs of the artist, his friends, models, and reproductions of the paintings; the latter only in black and white. Excellent notes; bibliography; exhibitions list. General; upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty. P. C. Bunnell; Princeton University
Library Journal Review
These two books enrich the already substantial Bacon bibliography with different but equally successful approaches. While Peppiatt's biography fleshes out, with lucidity and scholarship, biographical and contextual details heretofore unexplored, Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits is a lavishly produced treat with a sharp focus, carefully chosen reproductions, and inspired writing. Peppiatt (editor of Art International) brings both a critical and a personal perspective to his subject, as he was a close friend of the artist. Bacon's haunting images almost beg for psychological exploration; likewise, one is tempted to search for elements of the artist's hidden, exceptional life (and lifestyle) in his work. The new information Peppiatt provides about Bacon's early years enlarges the already complex portrait of the artist, and the interplay of persona and paintings adds up to a compelling and readable study. Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits is composed of Bacon's representations of peopleranging from Lucian Freud to Mick Jaggerwith many details and photographs that unveil the remarkable likenesses retained in studies that on the surface are gross distortions. Kundera's essay explores links with Picasso and Beckett and is wonderfully perceptive, while Belgian art historian Borel's prose is provocativealbeit a bit ponderous, possibly in part because of the translation. Both titles are highly recommended for 20th-century art collections, although the latter is more of a luxury.Heidi Martin Winston, NYPL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Illustrations | p. ix |
| Acknowledgements | p. xiii |
| Preface | p. xv |
| Part 1 1909-44 | p. 1 |
| 1 Origins and Upbringing | p. 3 |
| 2 Educated Abroad: Berlin and Paris | p. 23 |
| 3 A Brief Apprenticeship | p. 43 |
| 4 'Insufficiently Surreal' 1933-39 | p. 60 |
| 5 A Vision Without Veils 1939-44 | p. 77 |
| Part 2 1944-63 | p. 93 |
| 6 Father Figures and Crucifixions | p. 95 |
| 7 Towards Other Shores 1946-50 | p. 111 |
| 8 Hounded by Furies 1950-54 | p. 132 |
| 9 Truth Told by a Lie 1954-58 | p. 153 |
| 10 Recognition at Home: The Tate Retrospective | p. 176 |
| Part 3 1963-92 | p. 197 |
| 11 'A Brilliant Fool like Me' 1963-69 | p. 199 |
| 12 All the Honours of Paris | p. 223 |
| 13 Elegy for the Dead | p. 243 |
| 14 'My Exhilarated Despair': 1975-81 | p. 265 |
| 15 Alone in the Studio | p. 288 |
| 16 'the Greatest Living Painter': 1984-92 | p. 303 |
| Postscript | p. 317 |
| Notes | p. 324 |
| Main Exhibitions | p. 343 |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 345 |
| Index | p. 351 |