Francis Bacon: A Times Book of the Year 2021: FRANCIS BACON: Revelations: A Times Book of the Year 2021 - Hardcover

Stevens, Mark; Swan, Annalyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007298412 ISBN 13: 9780007298419

Publisher: William Collins, 2021

Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, deliver an expertly written and fascinating biography of one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century. Born in Ireland in 1909, Francis Bacon had a traumatic childhood, physically and mentally. Riddled with allergies and asthma, he also recognised his homosexuality from a very early age. When caught by his father trying on his mother's clothes, aged just sixteen, he was swiftly expelled from the household. Bacon travelled to Paris, Berlin and London, where he became part of an elegant Bohemian circle in South Kensington. His initial interest lay in radically modern furniture design but he soon began to dabble with paint. His early career was far from successful, and his work was panned by critics. Today, he is considered one of the greatest and most extraordinary painters of the twentieth century. His 'Triptych 1976' recently sold for $86.3 million - the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction. Always reluctant to talk about what inspired him, for fear of the story talking louder than the paint, Bacon's art is richly explored for the first time and his day-to-day working process is vividly brought to life. With much new material having been discovered since Bacon's death, this superbly written biography provides a fresh and exciting insight into the artist's life and works.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan: `A wise and delectable biography....To read [this] book is to spend hours in the company of the most interesting of men, ever on the threshold of moments when mere interest dissolves into hot, stammering creative bliss' Peter Schjeldahl New Yorker `One of the great strengths of this book is its sense of an artist in his studio. At times the authors disappear, and we watch [him] apply paint, scrape it off and attack again, trace sections of a painting and pin them on other parts to see how they work, stare at pictures for hours, destroy canvases, fly into rages of frustration ... An important book' Red Grooms, New York Times Book Review `A great American master gets the biography he deserves -exhaustive, scholarly, pulsating with life. Also, what beguiling close-ups of this elusive artist' John Richardson

About the Author:

Husband and wife team, Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, are the Pulitzer Prize winning authors of 'De Kooning: An American Master'. Stevens is a distinguished art critic and Swan is a veteran arts writer and editor. They live in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2021
• ISBN 10: 0007298412
• ISBN 13: 9780007298419
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 880