Art and Life

The Ups and Downs of life create moods and turmoil for all of us.  

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, Two Studies for Self-Portrait, 1977, oil on canvas  
"People have been dying around me like flies and I've had nobody else to paint but myself…  I loathe my own face. One of the nicest things that Cocteau said was ‘Each day in the mirror  I watch death at work.’ This is what one does to oneself.” - Francis Bacon, 1975  (http://keehuachee.blogspot.com)

Käthe Kollwitz

Woman with a dead child

(https://www.theguardian.com/)

This is Käthe Kollwitz’s most famous image of war. The picture’s edges press in on its subjects like the mother’s despair.  Kollwitz's work represented the horror of war and was used to illustrate WWII.  Her work was done in the early 20th century and reflected the tragedy of losing her son in WWI and the poverty and trauma that she saw as a doctor's wife in Berlin.  "In July 1936, she and her husband were visited by the Gestapo, who threatened her with arrest and deportation to a Nazi concentration camp; they resolved to commit suicide if such a prospect became inevitable.^[25] However, Kollwitz was by now a figure of international note, and no further action was taken." (https://en.wikipedia.org)

Artist Francis Bacon

Study for Self-Portrait by Artist Francis Bacon

Crucify 3 by Artist Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Above is the work Francis Bacon, Irish born, English artist.  He is very famous for extreme paintings that depict violent, repressed and anxious feelings. The reason I like his work is that it's so personal, so intense and not mainstream. His art has impact born of a terrific talent, scarred past and deep emotion. No, it's not pretty but it is powerful. The paintings come from his soul. There is great painterly quality in Bacon's work, the scrubbing and changing and moving of the paint on the surface of the canvas pulls the viewer into the art.  This style works to bring more intensity to the emotional content of the work.

Growing up in Ireland, Francis Bacon experienced violence at an early age. He described an experience of hiding in a ditch and viewing a violent political murder as a small boy. He was forever marked by his insecure an violent childhood. A lot is made of the fact that Bacon was gay. At the time he was alive it was less accepted but also he had wild life, gambling, drinking in London's Soho which was somewhat a reflection on his life choice. He called this lifestyle, "rough trade".

He was born in 1909 and died in 1992. In his last years he settled down and lived a quiet life. I saw photos of his studio with trash piled everywhere. He liked the chaos and felt that was the best soil for his creative life.

An interesting quote by Margaret Thatcher concerning Francis Bacon: "that man who paints those dreadful pictures."  Dreadful? Maybe.  Life can be dreadful and for Bacon it was his place and his time to give meaning to the feeling of anxiety that a violent past produces.

CharlotteRossmann.com