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Article: Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma.
- Article from:
- The New Leader
- Article date:
- November 3, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Michael Peppiatt Farrar Straus Giroux 368 pp. $30.00.
Like The Poems of Sylvia Plath, the canvases of Egon Schiele or any other works fired in the kiln of an extreme sensibility, the paintings of Francis Bacon tend to arouse fierce adolescent admiration followed by a cooling and reappraisal. In such cases the life frequently seems as wild and compelling as the work. The obvious challenge for a biographer is to resist exploiting this long enough to analyze the relationship between the two. The more difficult task, however, is to distinguish the enduring elements of the art from the passionate intensity that is its initial attraction.
Francis Bacon's ...