Francis Bacon and the Brutality of Fact

1985 / 58 min. / color

Directed by Michael Blackwood

 Pairing his collection of figurative paintings with an astute conversation surrounding mortality and humanity, “Francis Bacon and the Brutality of Fact” offers personal insight into the mind of an artist. In an interview led by friend and art critic, David Sylvester, Bacon opens up about his work and the, often times, grotesque and macabre tone of his paintings. His representations of the human figure in portraits and triptychs link him, in his view, to the distorted realism of Van Gogh and Picasso. With his unique take on life and death, Bacon explains to us the dichotomy of his art through an unexpectedly optimistic thesis which he dubbed the “brutality of fact”. As Bacon’s striking art conveys, with the acceptance of death comes a passionate vitality for life.

Biography and significance of Francis Bacon on The Art Story