Francis Bacon Paperback by Hugh Marlais Davies; Sally Yard

Product Details

• Publisher: Abbeville Publishing Group (1995-01-03)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 128 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781558592452
• Item Weight: 368.55 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

With their searing colors and compelling images, the paintings of Francis Bacon are among the most powerful, and the most poignant, to be made in the twentieth century. 

During his sixty-odd years as a painter Francis Bacon fearlessly tackled the unruly imagery of life, remaining defiantly committed to giving "this purposeless existence a meaning." His insistence on depicting the mysteries of human experience had been rare in an age dominated by abstraction. Now, with the international resurgence of figurative imagery, the pivotal importance of his work has become more obvious than ever before.

The power and magnitude of his life's work are vividly conveyed by this thorough evaluation written by Hugh Davies and Sally Yard. Born in Dublin, as a teenager Bacon moved to London, where he worked as an interior designer and taught himself to paint. Responding to influences as diverse as Michelangelo and the photographer Muybridge, he has created a motion-filled style uniquely his own. Fascinated by the challenge of capturing what he calls "the mysteries of appearance," Bacon confronts us with emotional images that demand an emotional response.

About Abbeville's Modern Masters series:

With informative, enjoyable texts and over 100 illustrations—approximately 48 in full color—this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. The authors are highly respected art historians and critics chosen for their ability to think clearly and write well. Each handsomely designed volume presents a thorough survey of the artists life and work, as well as statements by the artist, an illustrated chapter on technique, a chronology, lists of exhibitions and public collections, an annotated bibliography, and an index. Every art lover, from the casual museum goer to the serious student, teacher, critic, or curator, will be eager to collect these Modern Masters. And with such a low price, they can afford to collect them all.

About the Author

Hugh M. Davies has served since 1983 as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, museum with dual facilities in La Jolla and downtown San Diego, and an international reputation for its exhibitions, programs, and permanent collection.

Davies has written or contributed to numerous books and exhibition catalogues over the years and is recognized internationally as a scholar in the field of contemporary and modern art. His professional activities include his appointment as Adjunct Professor, Department of Visual Art, University of California, San Diego; service on the National Endowment for the Art Museum Program Overview Panel; the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions; Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies, 2000 Millennium Committee, the Advisory Council of the Princeton Art Museum, Princeton University; and the Advisory Council of the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton. Since 1984, he has been a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors (representing over 170 of the largest art museums in North America), a Trustee from 1994-2001, and served as President from 1998-1999. Davies received his A.B., Summa Cum Laude, (1970), M.F.A. (1972), and Ph.D. (1976) from the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.

From 1975 to 1983, he was Founding Director of the University Gallery at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. There, he served as both curator and director, arranging numerous exhibitions and public sculpture commissions and publishing scholarly catalogues, and was professor in the Art Departments at Amherst College as well as the University of Massachusetts.

Sally Yard, PhD is a professor of art history at the University of San Diego. She joined the faculty in 1989, and served as chair of the department of Art from 1992 through 1997. Yard writes about art since the second world war.  Her research interests stretch from the emergence of abstract expressionism in the United States to the relationship of art and its publics—whether in the contentious terrain of San Diego / Tijuana or the reflective realm of a museum garden.

Scholarly Work

Sally Yard’s work on the relationship of art and its publics includes the book Christo: Oceanfront (Princeton University Press), as well as essays in Robert Irwin (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Rizzoli, 1993); Museum as Muse(Museum of Modern Art, New York and Abrams, 1999); along with Private Time in Public Space (1998), Fugitive Spaces(2002), and A Dynamic Equilibrium:  In Pursuit of Public Terrain (2007) (Installation Gallery, San Diego and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Arts, Mexico).  She has also written on postwar painting: Francis Bacon: A Retrospective (The Trust for Museum Exhibitions and Abrams, 1999) and Willem de Kooning (Poligrafa, Barcelona, 2007).  She is currently at work on a book with Robert Irwin, the first artist to receive a MacArthur Foundation Award.

Yard is founding director and board president of CoTA:  Collaborations of Teachers and Artists, a program that links artists and elementary school teachers in National School District, Chula Vista Elementary School District, and San Diego Unified School District.  She has curated exhibitions for institutions throughout the United States, and has served as faculty curator for the Hoehn Family Print Study Collection and Galleries at USD. Yard’s undergraduate thesis focused on Early Matisse and the “Decorative”; her doctoral dissertation considered Willem de Kooning:  The First Twenty-Six Years in New York—1927-1952.

Areas of Interest

Sally Yard’s courses center on modern and contemporary art in the United States and Europe.  She focuses on the emergence of modernity in such courses as Modern Art in Europe: from the French Revolution to World War I and the seminar Matisse and Picasso.  In the courses Art since 1960, Installation Art, and Art in the Land and in the City—Sited and Public Work, Yard probes the ways that art has eluded the boundaries of the museum and gallery to operate in the unfettered and unruly terrain beyond.   In the seminar Race, Ethnicity, Art and Film, students probe the import of representations and their contexts.  Yard also teaches museum studies and oversees a broad expanse of student internships in museums and galleries