Francis Bacon in the 1950s

by Michael Peppiatt

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The first exploration of Bacon’s compelling work during the key decade when he was attaining the height of his powers

From the screaming heads and snarling chimpanzees of the late 1940s to the anonymous figures trapped in tortured isolation some ten years later, during one crucial decade British artist Francis Bacon created many of the most central and memorable images of his entire career. The artist enters the decade of the 1950s in search of himself and his true subject; he finishes ten years later having completed some of his great masterpieces and having acquired technical mastery over one of the most disturbing and revealing visions of the 20th century.

This book brings both Bacon the man and Bacon the painter vividly to life, focusing for the first time on this key period in his development. Michael Peppiatt, the leading authority on Bacon and a close friend of the artist for thirty years, reveals essential keys to understanding Bacon's mysterious and subversive art. The book presents and assesses a wide range of paintings (many of them rarely seen before) representing all of Bacon's major themes during the 1950s. Also included is an account of the artist's life in the 1950s.

Published in association with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich


Exhibition Schedule:

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich (September 26 – December 10, 2006)

Milwaukee Art Museum (January 29 – April 15, 2007)

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (May 5 – July 30, 2007)

  • ISBN10 0300151217
  • ISBN13 9780300151213
  • Publish Date 26 February 2009 (first published 1 July 2006)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 11 June 2021
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Yale University Press
  • Format Paperback (US Trade)
  • Pages 224
  • Language English