|
|
Article: Cover story: Demon lover Screaming popes, tormented faces - there's a lot of unexplained anguish in Francis Bacon's paintings, says Philip Hoare. Can new revelations about his torturous relationships shed any light on the subject?
- Article from:
- The Independent on Sunday (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 13, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Independent on Sunday. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Sometime in the mid-1980s in South Kensington, I saw Francis Bacon
hopping on the back of a bus. I stared in recognition, nonplussed at
the apparition, in the flesh, of Britain's most famous living artist,
riding on public transport. I suppose I must have gazed too long, for
his eyes stared back, out of a high-coloured, slapped cherub's face.
Was he angry? Or was it a come-on? I'm still not quite sure. But in
retrospect, that brief encounter seems symbolic of Bacon's life: so
public a figure, so private a person; as paradoxical as his art.
Francis Bacon was as recognisable as his paintings. His petulant
yet impassive features, his aristocratic rough-trade dress sense and
youthful figure ...