痴迷:弗朗西斯·培根 A Magic Obession

Francis Bacon, an almost household name in the history of fine arts, is one of the most outstanding artists in the 20th century. Bacon was born in Ireland on October 28, 1909 and settled in London in 1929. In 1927, while living in Paris, he watched Picasso's exhibition, which gave Bacon the idea of painting. However, he did not receive art education. From 1943 to 1945, he began painting, and along with the accumulation of life, he produced his own unique painting theme. Bacon became famous when he came out. He held two large-scale retrospective exhibitions in the Tate Gallery in London (1962, 1985); the Guggenheim Gallery in New York (1963); the Grand Palace in Paris (1971); the Metropolitan Museum in New York (1975); and Britain participated in the 27th Venice Biennale in 1954. In 1976-1977, bacon met Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino. He died in Madrid, Spain on April 28, 1992.

Bacon's works have been the favorite of the art market since his death in 1992. In all kinds of important art trading scenes, especially in the important auction process, Bacon's works are known as the most expensive artists in the west after the war because of the rapid rise and huge amount of money. At the same time, the world's major art museums have collections of Francis Bacon's works, he swept the history of art.

The exhibition "obsession: Francis Bacon" held in Art  Amoy Museum（Xiamen） shows Bacon's little-known series of art works on paper (35 pieces in total). Most of these masterpieces were painted in his later years, from 1987 to 1990 in Venice, Bologna and other places in Italy. There are records in literature, and a few of them were completed in his studio in London. And to Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino's Francis Bacon collection foundation. These works trace back to the important themes of his earlier works. For example: repeated creation of Velazquez's portrait "Pope Innocent X"; the crucifixion of Jesus; and a large number of portraits.

According to Edward Lucie-Smith, Bacon's most important art critic, art historian and "insider", bacon found that his fame was too much for him to bear. His solution is to escape to a place where few people or no one knows him. Francis Bacon began to travel regularly to Italy, where everything was quiet and he was far away from the people who watched him closely. He was often accompanied by his companion Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino, a handsome young man of mixed race. They often haunt the bars and restaurants in Venice. After that, he will devote himself to painting and creating collages and mixed media. After leaving the studio, he will replace them with portable materials for continuous creation. At the end of his life, he especially wants to try new media... " This group of oil painting stick collages is such a background.

Accompanied by his beautiful young partner, Bacon's complete works with new materials are reminiscent of Michelangelo's sketches for young Tommaso Cavallieri. In the heart stirring depth of art history, the experience of masters is similar to samsara, which shows the transcendental sense of art emotion.

The exhibition in Xiamen is also the first exhibition of Bacon's original work in Chinese mainland. It has special importance for Bacon's artistic feelings and understanding. They will open up new paths for young artists. They are important not only in quality and technology, but also because they came into being in the final stages of Francis Bacon's artistic activities. He drew them at the end of a reflection, touching all the works of art he had created in his life. His remarkable feature is that he summarized the important themes in his early creation in the 1950s, such as copying the portraits of Pope Velazquez, businessmen, and even a series of portraits of clergy. Perhaps his inspiration came from the images of figures he saw on the streets of Italy.

Sandro Orlandi, a famous Italian curator, wrote a long panoramic introduction to Bacon, saying that "Bacon's portrait is touching human beings". The small head portraits in these collections have their own soul inside, "expressing the most incisive human beauty (Bacon's own words)". The portrait is full of the whole picture, and there is no need for larger paper to show redundant blank space, because the Venetian face he touched has been immortal in the image chronicle, because in the late 1980s, bacon redraws the past theme in his leisure time in the bay of Baudrillard, and it really returns to the "most basic state". These portraits are not only continuous in appearance, but also overlapping, and different from the common forms in our lives. The picture will never be reduced to a kind of decoration because of adventure.

Bacon's series of oil painting collages on paper is a brand new ecstasy: bright colors, free lines, showing the power of obsession and the essence of art. Therefore, Edward Lucie Smith said in the depth of Art History: "these works have a fascinating level, that is, they make bacon look like the myth of Laocoon, just like Laocoon to break away from the python around him, he tries to get rid of the false myth about him, and return to the joy of artistic creation—— Just for that reason. “

Umberto Guerini, chairman of the Francis Bacon foundation of the drawings, is a famous Italian lawyer. As the special heritage administrator and curator of Bacon's paper works, he has made outstanding contributions to the identification, protection and global exhibition of physics and handwriting of these works. Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino, the owner of the painting and Bacon's unofficial lover, wrote: "he turns pain into something sweet for all of us.". In fact, since 1992, Bacon's friends have revealed that Bacon has a lot of fascinating works on paper. Martin hammer, his art critic, also said: "in the future, bacon may leave us a different impression than today.". Bacon, as we have known and seen before, is only the tip of the iceberg of Bacon's large-scale love. Therefore, we are ecstatic to meet Bacon's works on paper.