Sunday, December 28, 2008

Francis Bike-on


Made it to the Francis Bacon exhibition at the Tate in its last few days, and it was well worth it, despite the irksome crowds. I particularly enjoyed his studies of Pope Innocent X, which I find very sinister indeed. I also really like the paintings he did not long before he died, still going strong in his early eighties. If I had to choose an absolute favourite though, it would be this, his portait of George Dyer riding a bicycle (1966).

4 comments:

David Titlow said...

i went twice to that and missed the bike pic, thanks for posting, my fave are the henrietta moraes portraits -

the oxo said...

Yes, the Henrietta portraits are great too. Did you know that as well as being Bacon's Muse, she did time for burglary and shared a flat with Marianne Faithful?

Get Callaghan said...

I went to this on New Years day.
I liked the bike picture too. He must have been in a good mood when he painted it? I saw Frank Skinner wandering around there too.

the oxo said...

I saw a programme about Bacon on Sky Arts last night - the presenter reckoned that FB was having a laugh at George Dyer wobbling about on his bike so, yes, he probably was having a day off from the pain and anguish of the human condition.