"Francis Bacon: Man and Beast," the Mutilation of the Human Condition

Photograph by Irving Penn, 1962

Regarded as one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century, and a pioneer of surrealism in the UK, the Royal Academy of Arts will be hosting the first ever exhibition showcasing the work of Irish-born painter Francis Bacon. Fittingly named Francis Bacon: Man and Beast, the exhibition will display around 45 incredible paintings spanning his career, all of which present the lifelong evolution of his fascination with the intimate relationship between the human condition and the animal kingdom, alongside the violent distortion of a world corrupted by war anxieties. From his earliest pieces from the 1930s all the way to his final one before his 1992 passing, the wondrous ouevre of one of the UK’s finest and most important masters of his craft will be realized in their utmost grandeur.

Born in Dublin in 1909, Bacon’s early life was polluted with mental and physical abuse, ableism and homophobia, peaking with him getting kicked out of his home after he was found trying on his mother’s underwear. As an adult, Bacon desperately squeezed out the essence of life to its fullest capacity, he laughed, drank, smoked, gambled, painted and loved tenaciously, forming deep friendships and relationships along the way that would ultimately shape the fabric of his existence until his death.

But to fully grasp the nature and inspiration behind the violently warped and equally mesmerizing works of Bacon, it is imperative to understand the concepts, movements and people that built the foundation of his artistic expression. Having taken various creative pilgrimages throughout Europe primarily during the 20s and 30s, Bacon had run-ins with surrealism through the works of Picasso and Valazquez, biomorphism, the grotesque and works of fiction and poetry that he would merge and manifest into his own creations.

Weeping Woman - Picasso, 1937

Inarguably the most notable motif which flows throughout his collection is his obsession with the dichotomy between man and beast. Having amassed a large catalogue of wildlife books and observing the movements and behaviours of wild animals before his very eyes, the first section of the exhibition will show off a group of 1944-1946 paintings which pervert and contort biomorphic creatures. Bacon used these distorted human bodies as a metaphor for the decay of civilised humanity, having used the Greek tragedy The Oresteia by Aeschylus as his prime influence. At the centre of the exhibition will feature Bacon’s most famous trilogy of bullfighting paintings, which blend flesh and meat together to question the contradiction of man condemning bullfighting yet using and consuming animal products all the same. “I have always been very moved by pictures about slaughterhouses and meat” said Bacon in a 1962 interview.

Study for Bullfight - Francis Bacon, 1969

Bacon was also preoccupied with depicting the ways in which the beast inside of humanity manifests in our own actions. The aftermath of World War II saw him create grotesque, raw paintings of subjects with forms so unusual they border on alien, suggesting the distress and nihilism of a civilisation coping with post-war devastation. The existentialist expressions and running motif of crucifixion and religious iconography embodies the emotional turmoil felt globally after the war.

The unknown abyss of death and mortality would continue haunting the works of Bacon during the mid 1900s onwards. His primary muse during the 60s would be his lover George Dyer, with whom he navigated through a passionate and toxic relationship until Dyer’s death and created various triptychs of. A man crippled with mental illness who endlessly tried to purge his burdens through heavy drinking, Dyer attempted suicide on multiple occasions, many times failing due to Bacon himself being the one to revive him. However in 1971 Dyer would succeed, and the unbearable guilt and pain Bacon felt would translate into the posthumous paintings he would create of him. Being a man who experienced war, Bacon was not foreign to death and was fully versed in the mortality of humanity, but in his portraits of Dyer there lies an almost Lovecraftian sense of fear and regret, concentrated in the visage of his ill-fated lover.

In Memory of George Dyer - Francis Bacon, 1971

The eye-opening exhibition will end with Bacon’s final painting he ever created, Study of a Bull, which was not discovered until 25 years after its conception in 2016.

The art presentation is curated by Michael Peppiatt, who was a friend of Bacon and wrote a biography of him, alongside Sarah Lea and Anna Testar. Organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, there are accompanying essays by Peppiatt to further contexualize and amplify the experience.

The Francis Bacon: Man and Beast exhibition will be open from 29th January to 17 April 2022. More details and ticket booking can be found here.