chrilaura's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I enjoyed the theoretical discussions about realism and modern art, the autobiographical details of Francis Bacon's life, and the reflections on the role of accident vs. intention in making art. I was less enthused by Bacon's political opinions and found the interviews pretty repetitive - didn't need quite so many questions and answers about triptychs. I am glad the book included images of Bacon's work: his paintings are far more interesting than his descriptions of how he painted them (which I am sure Bacon would agree with.) Felt like an 'if I could say it I wouldn't have to dance it' sort of thing.
"I don't want to avoid telling a story, but I want very, very much to do the thing that Valery said - to give the sensation without the boredom of its conveyance."
"When talking about the violence of paint, it's nothing to do with the violence of war. It's to do with an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself."
"....the one I did which is less literally like him is in fact more poignantly like him."
"I think an awful lot of creation is made out of, also, the self-criticism of an artist, and very often I think probably what makes one artist seem better than another is that his critical sense is more acute. It may not be that he is more gifted in any way but just that he has a better critical sense."
"...Magritte was always writing about the mystery of banal reality and of his wanting to use painting to evoke that mystery. But he painted a fruit or a loaf floating in mid-air; he displaced the thing to make a mystery that was more immediate, although, as he said, a fruit of a loaf on a table is full of mystery."
"I don't want to avoid telling a story, but I want very, very much to do the thing that Valery said - to give the sensation without the boredom of its conveyance."
"When talking about the violence of paint, it's nothing to do with the violence of war. It's to do with an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself."
"....the one I did which is less literally like him is in fact more poignantly like him."
"I think an awful lot of creation is made out of, also, the self-criticism of an artist, and very often I think probably what makes one artist seem better than another is that his critical sense is more acute. It may not be that he is more gifted in any way but just that he has a better critical sense."
"...Magritte was always writing about the mystery of banal reality and of his wanting to use painting to evoke that mystery. But he painted a fruit or a loaf floating in mid-air; he displaced the thing to make a mystery that was more immediate, although, as he said, a fruit of a loaf on a table is full of mystery."
lakelady's review against another edition
2.0
I'd recently been looking at the work of Francis Bacon and I came across someone saying this book had great insights into creativity. Well, it doesn't. There are a few minor gems in a couple of scattered paragraphs but not enough to give this any more stars. There are pages that are nearly verbatim repetition of other sections. Worthwhile if you're interested in Francis Bacon and his work but I beyond that I wouldn't recommend it.
zachwerb's review against another edition
5.0
At times repetitive, but that just goes to show that Bacon is consistent in his artistic philosophy. As he gets older the art becomes easier to pull out of himself, the work doesn't seem to evolve a whole lot stylistically or in subject matter. As a fan, I don't mind this, I rather enjoyed seeing the thought process of one of the more remarkable artist of the 21st century and this book focuses mostly on the work and his philosophies, at times only brushing over his large life that it seems he lived and not basking in hedonism of such.
fredrikke's review
4.0
this book is so interesting and also easy to read, because it is interview based. i learned quite a lot by reading this and connected francis bacons work to other artists in a way i have never done before.
eli0fc71's review
4.0
The structure was well done and while it was interesting to explore artistic theory through the conversation, I don't believe I'm a great fan of Francis Bacon.
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