Aug 2, 2009 1:46 pm US/Eastern
CBS 2 At The Met: Francis Bacon
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Brace yourself for artist Francis Bacon. Passionate about painting, the Dublin-born Bacon, who never went to art school, is considered one of the most influential European painters of the 20th century.
In this exhibition, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Bacon's birth, the artist's twisted, tortured human figures, and dramatic interpretations of screeching religious icons, demand your attention.
Surrounded by 65 dark, and dramatic works, at the met, you might think bacon was a tormented soul. But Curator Gary Tinterow tells CBS2's Dana Tyler, "Actually he was a very cheerful person. He talked about not believing in God, being a confirmed atheist. But he said there is no meaning to life, there is only meaning one gives it through daily work, through what we achieve on a daily basis. There's no predetermination he would say, but he would say I'm an optimist, an optimist about nothing. In other words, there's not grand scheme but he took pleasure in his daily life."
World War II is the subject in "Three Studies For Figures at the base of the Crucifixion" from 1944. For Curator Gary Tinterow, it's the most remarkable painting in the exhibition. He said, "This is a work that Bacon showed in London in April 1944. The month when Mussolini was hung. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin, and FDR died in the United States. So it was a earth changing, shattering, momentous moment. And he releases this painting that he had been working on for about a year showing these strange, nightmarish creatures that look like an amoeba. We recognize that we want to anthropomorphize them and we want to see human aspects right in the mouth and the eye. But they're horrific."
Tyler says, "Of course my eye is drawn here?" Tinterow responds, "Yeah, and the mouth is so fascinating with Bacon. Bacon said many times that I'm fascinated by mouth. He had books on diseases of the mouth and radiology."
Bacon was fascinated by Nazi imagery. A 1946 work, called "Painting," shows Adolph Hitler's reception room in his chancellory in Berlin.
Tinterow: "The architecture of power and that's the statement that he wanted to make with his pictures. He wanted to explore our fascination with power. Our complicity and holding people up who in fact are just empty hallow men. And the colors are meant to be shocking and vibrant and harsh and to go against conventions of good taste. He wanted to, he said, unlock the valves of feeling, in other words he wanted to grab you by your guts."
Bacon's personal life plays out on canvas, in his 1971 triptych "In Memory of George Dyer." Tinterow explains, "This is one of the most moving pictures in the exhibition because it was painted after his companion, long time lover, and his muse George Dyer, who is seen there on the right, committed suicide in their Paris hotel room the night before his big opening of a retrospective at the grand palace. Bacon went on to the opening and pretended nothing had happened but it was tremendously devastating for him."
An artist who never lost his edge, Francis Bacon died in Madrid in 1992. He was 82 years old. "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective," on display until August 16th.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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