Bacon's Eye: Works on Paper Attributed to Francis Bacon from the Barry Joule Archive
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Bacon's Eye: Works on Paper Attributed to Francis Bacon from the Barry Joule Archive Details
During his lifetime, Francis Bacon maintained that he painted directly onto canvas without the benefit of preparatory studies. Since his death in 1992, however, several groups of works on paper have come to light, offering amazing new insights into Bacon's working methods and personal obsessions. "Bacon's Eye" showcases a unique collectiion of works on paper that were bundled up and given by the artist to his friend Barry Joule just prior to his death. This collection includes a remarkable album of 70 oil sketches that relate to his work from the '50s and '60s, as well as over 900 "working documents": images torn from books, magazines and newspapers that have been painted and sketched over, revealing an artist's-eye-view of some of the most important people and events of the 20th century. As of yet, these works have not been officially recognized as being by Bacon. Permission to to show these works alongside finished paintings was denied by the Bacon Estate. The gallery, 21 Publishing, and a host of Bacon experts firmly believe in the authenticity of these works. This book, along with an exhibition at the Barbican Gallery in London, are a means of allowing the public to judge for itself. Edited by Georgia Mazower. Foreword by John Hoole. Introduction by Mark Sladen. Essay by Mark Sladen. 116 color and 6 b&w. 9.25 x 12 in.
Reviews
This book consists of images of works attributed to Francis Bacon. The first is a photographic reproduction of a photo album filled with images that included rough sketches/drawings and photographic images. The sketches in this section range from images from Bacon's Van Gogh series, chimpanzee images, the Pope series and other figure images including photos of the mouth. Most of the sketches were likely from the 50s and 60s as they match up with similar paintings Bacon completed around this time. Including images of the front and back cover there are 36 pages to this section. The next section features images of about 70 heavily manipulated photos that are painted over, scratched into, or folded. There is also an article by Mark Sladen, and an interview with Barry Joule, who was a friend of Francis Bacon for 14 years, and evidently came into possession of these sketches and photographs in 1992 as a gift from Francis Bacon. The book is 112 pages not including the covers.This book is likely interesting to anyone wanting to explore an artist's methods of working, and the sources that he worked from. I would recommend this book to anyone who has already explored many of Bacon's paintings and is looking for something more obscure and intimate. To the uninitiated I would recommend starting with something like "In Camera Francis Bacon" by Martin Harrison, or "Bacon" by Luigi Ficacci.