Francis Bacon - Social/Cultural

Question 1

Point 1

Answer 1

Francis Bacon was a painter born in Dublin in 1909. His early work is influenced by cubism and surrealism however it did not gain much critical success. His later work kept these influences which can be seen in his use of geometric shapes and surreal nightmarish subject matters where he distorts and deforms people and things.

Question 2

Point 2

Answer 2

Bacon never painted from real life, he always used photographs. He frequently referred to Velazquez’s portrait of Innocent X and the wounded nurse from the film The Battleship Potemkin.

Question 3

Point 3

Answer 3

In 1944 Bacon exhibited ‘Three Studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion’ and it recover a public outcry due to its horrific imagery. It was the key painting in Bacons work.

Question 4

Point 4

Answer 4

Bacons art was seen as a metaphor for the corruption of human spirit in the post world war 2 era.

Question 5

Point 5

Answer 5

From the 1950’s onwards isolation and the pain of the individual was a constant theme in his work which a single figure often sitting or standing in a confined area.

Context - this can be seen in the Portrait of innocent X in which there is a solitary figure in the piece.