Francis Bacon and the Brutality of Fact

The Famous Painter Disscusses His Style

In his London studio, British painter Francis Bacon discusses his work and approach with David Sylvester, a friend and close observer of his art since the late 1940s.

Central to their conversation are Bacon's controversial, horrifying subjects, and surprising style. His representations of the human figure in portraits and triptychs link him, in his view, to the distorted realism of Van Gogh and Picasso, who also portrayed the intensity of life that Bacon calls "the brutality of fact."