Francis Bacon

Man and Beast

Royal Academy of Arts

$79.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Royal Academy of Arts
01 March 2021

Art & Architecture; History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -; Drawing & drawings; Individual artists, art monographs; Exhibition catalogues & specific collections; Human figures depicted in art

"Francis Bacon is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th century. A major exhibition of his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2020 explores the role of animals in his work - not least the human animal.

Having often painted dogs and horses, in 1969 Bacon first depicted bullfights. In this powerful series of works, the interaction between man and beast is dangerous and cruel, but also disturbingly intimate. Both are contorted in their anguished struggle and the erotic lurks not far away: ""Bullfighting is like boxing,"" Bacon once said. ""A marvellous aperitif to sex."" Twenty-two years later, a lone bull was to be the subject of his final painting.

In this fascinating publication - a significant addition to the literature on Bacon - expert authors discuss Bacon's approach to animals and identify his varied sources of inspiration, which included surrealist literature and the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge. They contend that, by depicting animals in states of vulnerability, anger and unease, Bacon sought to delve into the human condition.

AUTHORS: Stephen F. Eisenman is Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, Illinois, and author of The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making of Animal Rights (2013). Catherine Howe is Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Michael Peppiatt, who knew Bacon well, is an art historian and curator, and author of numerous books on the artist. Anna Testar is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts.

SELLING POINTS: .

A major study of Francis Bacon's paintings of animals, to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 22 January to 12 April 2021 .

Bacon's paintings of animals reveal much about the human condition

160 colour illustrations"

By: Royal Academy of Arts
Imprint: Royal Academy of Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 280mm, Width: 240mm,
Weight: 1.088kg
ISBN: 9781912520558
ISBN 10: 1912520559
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 01 March 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Reviews for Francis Bacon: Man and Beast

Bacon's enduring motif is man alone in a room, fearful and furious. But isolation, in art as in life, is beginning to pall, and the anticipated joy of this show is a new inflection to the modern master of gloom. With his animals, Bacon's grand guignol menace is varied, inventive, sometimes even touched with comedy.--Jackie Wullschlager Financial Times In Bacon's paintings, man is never far from beast. That humankind is fundamentally an animal was a truth that lay at the heart of his imagery. From the biomorphic creatures of his earliest work to the distorted nudes that define the latter part of his career, Bacon remained convinced that, beneath the veneer of civilisation, humans are animals like any other.--Mark Westall FAD Incredibly moving...--Mark Brown Guardian The artist's distorted, visceral figures expose humanity's animal nature.--Emma Crichton-Miller Prospect [Bacon] knew painting could convey things photography could not. It could convey 'the brutality of fact.'--Sebastian Smee Washington Post