Francis Bacon was overwhelming. One of the themes of his works is the reoccurring image of Pope Innocent X, inspired by Velazquez's work. Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X captured the Pope's fierce, powerful yet cruel look and generated an unsettling pressure upon the audience. Bacon, although he himself never saw the original painting by Velazquez, managed to recreate the same power and pressure. However it'd be utterly unfair to say that Bacon simply 'recreated' what Velazquez did in a cooler way. I feel that Bacon's use of colour (purple, bright yellow, etc.), his unique approach of painting (leaving almost half of the canvas uncovered by paint), the twisted sense of space created by his invention of the 'space frame', brought the theme to an unprecedented level. The despair, the suffering, the twisted power, were all interpreted so brutally in his various versions of the snarling and ghosty image of the Pope. Among all these interpretations, my favourite was this one without any doubt.
Many of Bacon's works focused on the idea that human nature is violent, merciless and greedy. In other words, Bacon was working on eliminating the distinction between the nature of human beings and that of animals. And one of the approaches Bacon chose to achieve this was the metamorphosis of human bodies, and bodies of animals (in which you can find influences of cubism on Bacon). The extremely disturbing images of humans, baboons, chimpanzees (I think Bacon definitely liked primates more than any other kind of animals) were something nobody who has been to the exhibition could ever forget. In one of his paintings, the sharp teeth and claws of a baboon were highlighted by white paint. And in Head I, the eyes and nose were almost removed, leaving a shapeshifted mouth with pointy teeth the only thing in the face.
Also, what really intrigued me and Eddy was the white arrows Bacon deliberately(of course deliberately, which artist would create a painting indeliberately?) added to many of his paintings. What do they signify? We were suspecting they were showing the direction of the movement of human bodies, or they serve the functionality to lead the eyes of the audience to move around the canvas. However, never forget the multi-interpreted nature of modern art and indeed the arrows could be anything :P
Eddy was saying that when you looking at a contemporary painting, it's interesting how your mind is trying to look for references to objects you're familiar with, due to the level of abstraction present in expressionism, cubism, etc. And that's exactly what I found interesting about modern art. It's all about the interpretation. It's nothing but the process of interpretation that's the most exciting. Let me quote Martin Creed here - "Artists do not make art; they make objects, sculptures, paintings that can be used as art. It's the audience that makes them art."
It was a long day for both of us. We were both absolutely knackered when we left Tate Britain. A few hours of Bacon was simply too much for my tiny little brain. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, two bacon sandwiches provided us with much comfort before we headed home.
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