Annotated selections II ‘In Defense of Artist: Francis Bacon,’ - Eric Wayne

Annotated selections 2018-II


Eric Wayne, ‘In Defense of Artist: Francis Bacon,’ ART & CRITICISM BY ERIC WAYNE, August 31, 2014. https://artofericwayne.com/2014/08/31/in-defense-of-francis-bacon-2/

“Three Studies of Lucien Freud” 1969, by Francis Bacon.
The triptych sold for over $124,000,000 in auction at Christies, in 2013.
Nevertheless, the artist’s reputation is plummeting for all the wrong reasons.

Eric Wayne protects Francis Bacon, because he thinks Bacon is an excellent artist, although some of the author’s language might be a little horsey and not academic, such as “This was dead serious shit, and it wasn’t pretty”. The article addressed various perspectives to investigate the negative criticism of Bacon and provides a clear point of view to combat it. When reading, one will be hard put to stop halfway, and one is willing to follow through to see something more radical to come. 

The article is from Eric Wayne’s personal viewpoint, especially his own history as an artist, and he mainly focuses on attacking two art critics, Jed Perl (art critic of The New Republic) and Jerry Saltz (art critic of New York Magazine). Wayne accused these esteemed critics of “picking through the flotsam and jetsam of gossip and rumors for sensationalist, humiliating tidbits with which to decry the artist.” It is interesting to see his transition into discussing Van Gogh’s influence on Bacon, and what he calls nasty criticisms from both critics who reviewed Bacon’s posthumous retrospective at the Met in 2009. 

Wayne does not agree with Jed Perl’s link between Caravaggio’s still life painting and Bacon’s art. He furthermore points out Bacon followed Van Gogh’s painting by drawing several pieces in the manner of Van Gogh’s sower paintings. And he uses strong quotes from Bacon to prove that Bacon was not interested in illustrations. 

I applaud the article’s clearly described details and several proofs that Bacon has his own reason to produce horror paintings, that he is not trying to shock audiences, but to express his free will as an artist or be true to himself in art principle. 

While the bulk of the article was a fine and impassioned rebuttal of some art critics, one section of this article is very unpersuasive and shows the author’s own bias. He is an artist himself. Not only at the beginning of the article does he clearly introduce his own painting, but also at the end he tries to sell his paintings and descends to the commercial issue. It is not that I dislike his art work. But by asking for money, he has lost his objective position and lowered the value of this criticism. 

Also, when he attacked the viewpoint of Jerry Saltz, the author showed his personal hatred and turned his dislike into an extreme attack on the writer. Jerry Saltz may indeed like mediocre art, but that is not relevant to Saltz’s criticism of Bacon. Why did the author not point out that Saltz was partly correct in talking about Bacon’s fondness for meat, because Bacon did learn from Rembrandt‘s image of slaughterhouse meat? But quoting Bacon’s words was quite positive. 

(by Luchia Lee-Howell)