Francis Bacon: Full Face and in Profile

by Michel Leiris, Francis Bacon, John Weightman (Translator)

Michel Leiris traque dans l’art de Francis Bacon la hantise de la part de l’animalité en l’homme, dans ses différentes phases qui vont amener l’artiste à « peindre le cri plutôt que l’horreur », à violenter sa peinture plutôt que l’image de l’humanité.

Après une enfance maladive et une formation d’autodidacte à l’école de la bohème, entre Paris et Berlin, le peintre Francis Bacon s’impose à partir de 1945, au lendemain de la guerre, avec une peinture de l’horreur : corps crucifiés, chairs exsangues torturées par sa palette et un style à la fois sauvage, expressionniste et raffiné.

Genres: Art, Biography

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Born in Paris in 1901, Michel Leiris was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. In the 1920s he became a member of the surrealist movement and contributed to La révolution surréaliste. In those years, he wrote a surrealist novel: Aurora.

After his exit from the surrealist group, he teamed up with Georges Bataille in the magazine Documents.

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Francis Bacon, full face and in profile, July 14, 2009
By Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Though many reviewers and critics of this new edition of a 1983 book published in Spanish by the same name and by the same author are angry with the presentation of the Bacon paintings included, the simple fact that Michel Leiris' fine essay on Bacon, possibly the finest ever written, is once again available to the public more than makes up for the quality of the reproductions of the art. Leiris was in many ways Bacon's confidant, a man and a writer with whom Bacon shared his inner most feelings and life and stimuli for the paintings he created. Leiris writes with a quiet authority, with an immensely readable style, and offers more information about the real Francis Bacon than others - and the list of Bacon authorities grows all the time.

In this hardcover edition there is a quotation as a frontispiece that bears repeating. Georg Büchner: 'In everything I demand that there should be life, the possibility of existence, and then all is well; we are not then called upon to ask whether the work is beautiful or ugly. The feeling that what has been created has life comes before either consideration and is the only criterion in matters of art.' This, from the creator of 'Woyzeck'. After Leiris elegant essay the book contains a large number of Bacon's canvases. Even with less than perfect reproduction these works seem to take on new meaning, reflecting the information in Leiris' words.

This particular reincarnation of the 1983 book includes a full chronology of Bacon's life, a list of all the interviews recorded and a very complete bibliography that includes catalogues from exhibitions and an updated listing of all the public collections of the artist's works. Despite the flaws of production this book is well worth owning, especially since the Leiris essay is not otherwise available. Grady Harp

[morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

great compilation. good full colour reproductions.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michel Leiris is at least as impressive as Bacon here. All color reproductions, but a lot of somewhat small ones.

[Momo García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las tres estrellas son por el ensayo que acompaña a las reproducciones df Francis Bacon. No sirve en nada para conocer al artista, sólo se limita a unir ilimitadamente conceptos vagos. Gracias a Dios, sólo son 30 páginas.

Después de eso vienen más de 200 páginas con reproducciones de Bacon. En general, son buenas, pero por momentos tuve la sensación de que Bacon es ligeramente aburrido: abusó mucho de su estilo. Extrañé una reproducción del Bacon que existe en el Museo Tamayo.

[Brothier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belles reproductions de F. Bacon et un texte époustouflant de Leiris pour analyser l'œuvre du peintre