The Royal Academy of Arts is displaying a new exhibition, Francis Bacon: Man and Beast. Francis Bacon was a figurative painter who was Irish born; he is well known for his unsettling work. The subject of his work tends to be crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, to name some examples. I found his work particularly captivating, perhaps due to the heavy nature of the images in the paintings. The themes of his work perhaps stem from his life experiences such as his violent and abusive father who banished him from their home at 16 years old.
The paintings explore the line between human and animal and how primal instincts exist within humans. Bacon uses black, orange, pink, green, red colours in his work to create drama. His use of these specific colours in the paintings to evoke emotion is aided by the vivid colours used to paint the exhibition space.
When people say my work looks violent, perhaps I have from time to time been able to clear away one or two of the veils or screens. I want to make the animal thing come through the human. The image matters more than the beauty of the paint.
– Francis Bacon
The characters in the paintings are situated in different environments. The interiors in the paintings are not the focus of the work, however, they play a pivotal role in focusing the creature created by Bacon. An example of this is the use of cages in animal paintings.