Thursday, September 2, 2010

Save Your Bacons! Plus Closed Friday 9/3 through Monday9/6

This always confuses me.  There's a Francis Bacon from the Elizabethan Era who is presumed by some to have written Shakespeare's plays.  Then there is the contemporary artist Francis Bacon who, last time I visited, had a painting in the Des Moines Art Center that scared the bejaybers out of me.  Can't be the same guy but what are the chances of there being two famous Francis Bacons?  Turns out, pretty good.

Francis Bacon of then: 1561-1626. Apparently the Shakespeare thing is pretty much poo-pooed now.  He was a famous politician, philosopher, scientist and writer. This Bacon is considered by some a founder of  modern science, and occultists claim him as one of their own.  Busy guy.
Francis Bacon of now: 1909-1992.  Known for his disturbing paintings of anything he painted.  OK, maybe not everything is disturbing but Oh My. The one that frightened me depicts a pope sitting in a chair, the paint swiped across him in such a way that the pope appears to be, well, very upset.  Painter Bacon was a prominent artist whose paintings might appeal to occultists.  But not the ones who prefer paintings of flowers.  I was stretching there to provide a connection as I do not have the patience for 6 degrees.
Now try to remember these two.  I may have to ask you about them later.

Source:  Biography Resource Center
Elizabethan Bacon, Books by
Painter Bacon Books

2 comments:

K said...

I have never seen a Bacon painting that didn't give me nightmares. So much meat, and scary popes, and decay!

googoobeans said...

That is my favorite painting at the Art Center. A few years ago I went and it was on loan, the Des Moines Art Center is not the same without it!