Francis Bacon: The Emerging Artist (Part 1)
5/4/202649 min
How did the horrors of the Second World War influence Francis Bacon's first great masterpiece? And what impact did his troubled childhood have on his life and art? Join Alastair and James as they explore the early life and work of one Britain's greatest artists. Artworks in this episode include: Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944 Francis Bacon, Crucifixion, 1933 For more great art content visit www.heni.com or visit the Heni Talks YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@HENITalks Hosts: Alastair Sooke and Dr James Fox Additional Research: Catherine Ingram Producer and Editor: Ben Harding Executive Producer: Emma Cahusac
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJames Fox· Host0:00
[music] Welcome to Stories of Art. I'm James Fox.
Alastair Sooke· Host0:04
And I'm Alastair Sook.
James Fox· Host0:05
Deep in the chambers of a hot orange hell, three gray-skinned monsters writhe and scream. One perches on a table, neck roving like a vulture sniffing flesh. Another, with ears for eyes, howls at its neighbors. But the one in the middle appears to have spotted us. Rotating its bandaged head in our direction, it opens its mouth and bares a ghoulish set of blood-stained teeth. That, Alastair, is- [laughs] Is chilling, is what it is. It's, it's also Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which he made towards the end of the Second World War- Mm ... in 1944. It's a painting, well, to be precise, three paintings, of such seismic importance that the British art critic John Russell wrote, "There was painting in England before Three Studies and painting in England after them, and no one can confuse the two." Do you agree?
Alastair Sooke· Host1:09
I do agree. It's impossible to disagree. This is genuinely a before-and-after moment in British art, not just in the 20th century. But I find these pictures, this triptych, scarring.
James Fox· Host1:23
Mm.
Alastair Sooke· Host1:23
You know, it's, it, it, it's easy to say it's unforgettable, but it's almost painful to look at this stuff. You describe, I mean, that's