Francis Bacon Retrieved - Lost Words / New Writing

David Sylvester's Interviews with Francis Bacon remain the most consulted writing on Bacon. In this book, the fifth volume in the acclaimed Francis Bacon Studies series, Bacon's words appear in their unredacted form for the very first time. Other essays throw light on form and accident in Bacon's work, chimera and liminal entities, the psychology of the imposter and destroyed paintings.

Half of this volume, an unprecedented proportion in the ‘Studies’ series, is devoted to one topic: key parts of Bacon’s responses in Interviews with Francis Bacon that were removed, either to maintain continuity or at Bacon's own insistence. This unpublished material will add immensely to this most frequently consulted resource and will require a reassessment of many of Bacon's statements and ideas. Maria Balaska considers the question: Where does a painting come from? She investigates forms and accidents in Bacon's work. Amanda J. Harrison studies chimera and liminal entities in Bacon’s work, while Darian Leader turns our attention to the psychology of the imposter. Martin Harrison examines photographs of four paintings that Bacon later destroyed, and are reproduced here for the first time.