Francis Bacon Quotes on Art

Francis Bacon is a famous 20th century expressive British painter. See Sir Francis Bacon the Philosopher here. Bacon is known for his highly distorted and disfigured nudes and portraits. The artist often used the triptych format for his portraits and depictions of the figure. He produced mostly paintings. Famous Francis Bacon paintings include “Three Studies for a Crucifixion”, “Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer”, “Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe”, “Triptych May – June”, and “Study for a Portrait of John Edwards”.

Mini biography: Born Francis Bacon on the 28th of October, 1909 in Dublin, Ireland. His mother was Christina Winifred Firth and his father was the Australian born Captain Anthony Edward Mortimer Bacon. He was gay and never married. Francis Bacon died of a heart attack on the 28th of April, 1992 in Madrid, Spain. Bacon was 82 years old when he passed away.

Check out these books on Francis Bacon: “Interviews with Francis Bacon“, “Francis Bacon: Books and Paintings“, and “Francis Bacon Painting Philosophy“.

Francis Bacon Art Quotes

I loathe my own face. I’ve done a lot of self-portraits, really because people have been dying around me like flies and I’ve nobody else left to paint but myself. Francis Bacon

I don’t think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and luck. Francis Bacon

I often imagine that the accident that made man into the animal he has become also happened to other animals—lions or hyenas for example—while man remained a primate. What would have happened? It’s bizarre, I have never read anything about it, by Darwin or anyone else. Perhaps it’s science fiction, but it’s very interesting. I imagine men hanging in butcher’s shops for hyenas, who would be dressed in fur coats. The men would be hung by their feet, or cut up for stew or kebabs. Francis Bacon

All artists are vain, they long to be recognized and to leave something to posterity. They want to be loved, and at the same time they want to be free. But nobody is free. Francis Bacon

Velázquez found the perfect balance between the ideal illustration which he was required to produce, and the overwhelming emotion he aroused in the spectator. Francis Bacon

Picasso is the reason why I paint. He is the father figure, who gave me the wish to paint. Francis Bacon

Before I start painting I have a slightly ambiguous feeling: happiness is a special excitement because unhappiness is always possible a moment later. Francis Bacon

Picasso was one of that genius caste which includes Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Van Gogh and above all Velázquez. Francis Bacon

Images also help me find and realize ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from them, rather like people who eat from other people’s plates. Francis Bacon

I should have been, I don’t know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose painting, vanity and chance. Francis Bacon

You could say that I have no inspiration, that I only need to paint. Francis Bacon

It (painting) can be as violent as fu%%ing, like an orgasm or an ejaculation. The result is often disappointing, but the process is highly exciting. Francis Bacon

Picasso was the first person to produce figurative paintings which overturned the rules of appearance; he suggested appearance without using the usual codes, without respecting the representational truth of form, but using a breath of irrationality instead, to make representation stronger and more direct; so that form could pass directly from the eye to the stomach without going through the brain. Francis Bacon

Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life. Francis Bacon

I have no moral lesson to preach, nor any advice to give. Francis Bacon

Painting gave meaning to my life which without it it would not have had. Francis Bacon

I need the city; I need to know there are people around me strolling, arguing, f**king—living, and yet I go out very rarely; I stay here in my cage. Francis Bacon

I paint for myself. I don’t know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have to earn my living, and occupy myself. Francis Bacon

The men I painted were all in extreme situations, and the scream is a transcription of their pain. Francis Bacon

We are born with a scream; we come into life with a scream, and maybe love is a mosquito net between the fear of living and the fear of death. Francis Bacon

Flesh and meat are life! If I paint red meat as I paint bodies it is just because I find it very beautiful.
Ham, pigs, tongues, sides of beef seen in the butcher’s window, all that death, I find it very beautiful. And it’s all for sale—how unbelievably surrealistic! Francis Bacon

I have been lucky enough to be able to live on my obsession. This is my only success. Francis Bacon

This is the artist’s privilege—to be ageless. Francis Bacon

Some artists leave remarkable things which, a 100 years later, don’t work at all. I have left my mark; my work is hung in museums, but maybe one day the Tate Gallery or the other museums will banish me to the cellar…you never know. Francis Bacon

When I paint I am ageless, I just have the pleasure or the difficulty of painting. Francis Bacon

My painting is not violent; it’s life that is violent. Francis Bacon

My painting is a representation of life, my own life above all, which has been very difficult. So perhaps my painting is very violent, but this is natural to me. Francis Bacon

If I thought about what the critics said, I shouldn’t have gone on painting. Francis Bacon

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery. Francis Bacon

If you really love life you’re constantly walking in the shadow of death. Francis Bacon

The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure; it’s a little like making love, the physical act of love. Francis Bacon

An illustrational form tells you through the intelligence immediately what the form is about, whereas a non-illustrational form works first upon sensation and then slowly leaks back into the fact. Francis Bacon

I don’t emphasize death. I accept it as part of one’s existence. One is always aware of mortality in life, even in a rose that blooms and then dies. Francis Bacon

You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become completely a game, by which man distracts himself. What is fascinating actually is, that it’s going to become much more difficult for the artist, because he must really deepen the game to become any good at all. Francis Bacon

Art Quotes About Francis Bacon (Painter)

I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art what he thought it previously lacked. With me, it’s what Yeats called the fascination with what’s difficult. I’m only trying to do what I can’t do. Lucian Freud Quotes

Rembrandt is part of a group of artists who never go away. It’s like seeing a Francis Bacon exhibition: it just blows you away. Certain artists really hit—they don’t go in and out of fashion. Jenny Saville Quotes

Francis Bacon Self Portrait Painting

More on British Artist Francis Bacon

How has Francis Bacon influenced your art making? I’ve always liked Bacon art books more than Bacon art exhibitions. I feel the same way about a lot of artists that I like. Vincent van Gogh is the opposite as his works are alive in the flesh so you need to see them hanging on a wall in front of you to fully appreciate them. Let us know what you think about Francis Bacon in the comments below.

Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Brett Whiteley, Pablo Picasso, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon the Philosopher and Famous British Artists.