Michael Peppiatt

Published in 1996, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma was the first in-depth study of the artists life. It has not been superseded.In this substantially revised, updated edition - to coincide with the artists centenary, which will be celebrated from autumn 2008 through summer 2009 - Peppiatt will incorporate confidential material Bacon gave him, which he did not include in the first edition. This valuable, first-hand information comes from the hundreds of conversations Bacon had with Peppiatt, often late into the night, over thirty years, particularly during the periods Bacon spent living and working in Paris. It includes insights into Bacons intimate relationships, his artistic convictions and his general view of life, as well as his acerbic comments on his contemporaries.Peppiatt will draw on some of the fascinating information that has become available in the fifteen years since the artist died. Once jealously guarded by the artist himself, the contents of Bacons studio can now be freely consulted; Peppiatt has had privileged access to these archives, and he will show how a number of recent discoveries - including wholly unexpected source material - have radically changed the way we look at Bacons work. Similarly, his recent research into the artists background - his tortured affair with the sadistic Peter Lacy in Tangier, for instance, and the baffling circumstances of his death in Madrid - will shed light on unexplored areas of Bacons life and work. Peppiatt will also unveil new information from several people who knew Bacon intimately and who have never gone on record previously.

Engaging encounters personal anecdotes and jargon free critical insights into some of the liveliest creative minds in modern art by an international art world insider Praised by the Art Newspaper as the best art writer of his generation Michael Peppiatt has encountered many European modern artists over more than fifty years This selection of some of his best biographical writing covers a wide spectrum of modern art from Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard to personal conversations with painter Sonia Delaunay artist Dora Maar who was Picasso s lover in the 1930s and 1940s and Francis Bacon perhaps the most famous of the many artists with whom Peppiatt has formed personal friendships Michael Peppiatt s lively engaging writing takes us into the company of many notable art world personalities such as the Catalan painter Antoni Tpies whom he visits in his studio and moments of disillusion such as his meeting with the self mythologizing artist Balthus Art criticism blends with anecdote riding with Lucian Freud in his Bentley drinking with Bacon in Soho discussing Picasso s trousers with David Hockney This collection of Peppiatt s most perceptive texts includes under recognized artists such as Dachau survivor Zoran Music or Montenegrin artist Dado whose

Élevé dans une Irlande rurale dont il aura tôt fait de rejeter le poids des conventions, Francis Bacon trouve dans le Londres puis le Paris des années 1920 les sources d’une inspiration plus conforme

«Lo que veía Bacon y cómo pasaba por la picadora de su imaginación son cosas que sólo llegaremos a saber en parte. Ésa es seguramente una de las razones fundamentales por las que sus imágenes continú

A Francis Bacon se le ha considerado como al más original de todos los artistas durante mucho tiempo: sus lienzos de Papas gritando y figuras humanas desmembradas son imágenes definitorias del dolor del siglo XX. Bacon fue tambien una leyenda entre las mujeres mundanas de Londres, un hombre que salia por las noches y bebia, jugaba, y mantenia intensas aventuras sexuales de madrugada con su blanco lienzo. Cuando Michael Peppiatt lo conocio por primera vez en 1963, Bacon, que por aquel entonces andaba en sus cincuenta, estaba en un gran momento. Durante los siguientes treinta años, Peppiatt llego a ser un gran amigo de Bacon y uno de sus criticos mas perspicaces, y ahora ha creado una galeria fascinante e inquietante de este angustioso artista moderno. Bacon (1909- 1992) se crio en una gran casa de campo de la Irlanda rural en el seno de una familia contra cuyas expectativas convencionales se rebelo muy temprano. Cuando era joven se sumergio en el lado mas oscuro de Londres y Paris; pero solo se convirtio en artista despues de visitar una exposicion retrospectiva de Picasso en 1928. Salto a la fama en 1944 con un triptico que impacto al arte mundial por su marcada crueldad, y pronto aparecio, junto con su amigo Lucian Freud, como el lider de la informal 'School of London', la cual apoyaba su pintura figurativa en un tiempo dominado por la abstraccion. Al tiempo que sus exposiciones retrospectivas en Paris, Londres y Nueva York hicieron aumentar su reputacion, la noche le educaba de una manera cada vez mas salvaje; encantador y seguro de si mismo, con una gran vena sadomasoquista, se enrolo en los sucios negocios de los clubes de Londres y llevo todas las situaciones al extremo. Al mismo tiempo, era un artista considerado y muy culto que, de manera obsesiva, estaba alerta de sus fuentes de inspiracion. Michael Peppiatt ha resuelto muchos de los enigmas de la vida de Bacon y de su trabajo. Bacon hablaba abiertamente con Peppiatt sobre su juventud, su sexualidad, sus fantasias y sus ambiciones, consciente de una posterior publicaci&