ANALYTICAL REVIEW OF FRANCIS BACONS WORK

Francis Bacon was born in Ireland and was a figurative painter known mostly for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon established himself as a furniture designer and interior designer. Bacons first works with oils were presented in his studio along with furniture and rugs.

In 1935 Bacon purchased a second-hand book of ‘diseases of the mouth’ which contained high quality hand-coloured plates of both open mouths and oral interiors, which haunted and obsessed him for the remainder of his life. References to this book can be seen in some of Bacons work where faces, heads and shapes are simply constructed around a more focused, detailed mouth. Bacons work was also influenced by film, a scene of a nurse screaming later became a main theme in some of his paintings, combined with the imagery in his medical book.

Bacon normally based his portraits on photographs, Bacon is said to be able to capture a remarkable likeness. Instead of covering faces with mass amounts of flesh, he used large sweeps and brush strokes in order to ‘excavate’ large areas of cheekbone and forehead, and often filling in other areas with just a single stroke of the brush to create a nose or a chin

“In his mature style, developed in the 1950's, the paintings include images of either friends or lovers, or images of people found in movie stills, reproductions of historic paintings and medical photos. His people scream in physical and psychic pain, seemingly tortured in bedrooms, bathrooms and cages. His work was always expressionist in style with distorted human and animal forms, potent images of corrupt and disgusting humanity.”

Bacons 1944 piece  “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion” was completed within two weeks and is oil and pastel on board. It is based on Greek mythology and depicts three creatures set against a harsh orange background.

The work of Francis Bacon is much more neutral than that of Jenny Saville, and is much easier on the eye and avoids controversy. Although Bacons work can be seen as abstract or strange, the intention of his paintings is clear and well-thought. Bacons unique style of being able to construct a face with just a few brush strokes is what makes him stand out from the rest of the famous life artists.

ANALYTICAL REVIEW OF LUCIAN FREUDS WORK

Lucian Freud is considered one of the greatest figurative painters of our time, specialising in nude life-drawn paintings his work has built him a reputation amongst the best.

Using oil paints on canvas, Freud intends his paintings to ‘avoid colour’ and sees life drawing as more of a transaction, working very personally with the model rather than just simply painting them.

"I don't want any colour to be noticeable... I don't want it to operate in the modernist sense as colour, something independent... Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid."

Freud’s’ working method is very lengthy and Freud insists on the model being present even whilst working on the stationary elements of the image. One of Freud’s paintings took an estimated 2400 hours (100 days) to complete with the model being present to all but four of his ‘sittings’.

"I want paint to work as flesh... my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them ... As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does."

Freud never flatters his models, and paints the truth. Freud paints what he sees, not what he wants you to see.

 Freud’s painting ‘After Cézanne’ is well-known for its unusual shape. The top left section of the painting appears to have been attached to the much larger, main canvas. Being considered one of the best British painters of our time, Freuds’ work can be seen in exhibitions and galleries worldwide.

In 1977 Freud’s subject focus shifted to males, proceeding to paint several clothed portraits of males often with downcast eyes often sitting or lying. Freud grew extraordinarily concerned with the realistic male form. Rather than painting a man ageless and frozen, Freud instead presents one stopped along his way, captured for a moment in quiet repose.

Freuds’ work is much easier on the eye and considerably more subtle than the work of Jenny Saville. Savilles approach is much harsher and fleshy compared to Freuds’, calm photo-realistic paintings. Freuds’ style is much more of the painting as a whole, including the environment whereas Saville tends to focus entirely on the landscape of the model.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: LAYERS

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: REVERSE

ANALYTIC REVIEW OF JENNY SAVILLES WORK

Jenny Saville is a 23 year old, English-born painter who focuses on mostly oil painting larger women. At a glance, her work is disturbing and controversial, but it is much deeper than meets-the-eye. Saville admits that large women have a physicality that she is interested in, and this is reflected in her work, the majority of her work being of overweight women, transvestites or transsexuals.

Exploring ‘wherever the body breaks open’, Savilles’ primary influence to her paintings are human faces and genital regions. Using a traditional medium, the fast-developing world of media has not tempted Saville, sticking with strictly oil based paints. Using oils, Saville is able to create highly pigmented work on huge, larger than life-size scales. Savilles ability to intentionally use directional mark making allow the audiences eyes to move around the page as she wishes. Saville aims to show us the human body as it really is, through her confrontational paintings of obese women.

Saville is most often compared to Lucian Freud, with whom she shares a clear-eyed and unromantic view of the average female form

Working with a natural model, Saville painted a controversial transvestite painting. Saville was ‘searching for a body that was between genders’, this painting is where Savilles use of directional mark making is really obvious, Saville wanted to create a ‘visual passage through gender – a gender landscape’ and this flows from the penis, across the stomach, under the breasts and finally to the head.

At a first look Savilles work can be quite intimidating, her disturbing sketches include surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, deformity correction, disease states and transgender patients, with her paintings following the theme. With a more in-depth search into Saville and her techniques and influences, it is easy to see that her paintings are much more than just a transvestite, each painting portrays a message that Saville can easily get across.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: SURRENDER

RECYCLE EVERYTHING

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: DUSTY

Improvements to make:

• shade the background/table to add depth
• add text to the book to show that it is intended to be dust, not just grey

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: CHICKEN

Improvements to make:

• add colour
• spend more time on it
• more mixed media

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