Francis Bacon and brutality – two words that matches perfectly together. Bacon (1909 – 1992) was an Irish figurative painter known for his bold, grotesque and raw imagery. He was very interested in creating imagery that people would be attracted to impulsively, and in creating paintings that were meaningful, memorable.

In his London studio, the British painter discussed his work and approach with David Sylvester, a friend and close observer of his art since the late 1940s. The main subject of their conversation are Bacon’s controversial, horrifying subjects and style. His representations of the human figure in portraits and triptychs link him, in his view, to the distorted realism of Van Gogh and Picasso, who also portrayed the intensity of life that Bacon calls “the brutality of fact.”



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