The Impact Of Chaim Soutine is an extraordinary and unusual art book tracing how the works of Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) affected the artistic sensibilities of avant garde artists de Kooning, Pollock, Dubuffet, and Bacon. Filled cover to cover with full-color reproductions of bold painting, each image is paired with comments directly attributed to Soutine and the great artists he affected. Enhanced with artist and studio photographs, a chronology and biography, and a roster of Soutine Paintings in the Galerie Gmurzynska Exhibition, The Impact Of Chaim Soutine is a truly stunning and informative look at the influence and legacy of a notable man's abstract art and a welcome addition to personal and academic Art History collections.

Literature before James Joyce, before Jane Austen, before Daniel Defoe: No Ulysses, no Emma, no Robinson Crusoe - for modern readers it is hard to imagine a stock of English literature without the existence of these and other important writers and their 'novels'. What kind of literature could one refer to in a pre-novelistic age? As a matter of fact, there were authors, such as Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon, who wrote prose which, indeed, still affects our thinking. However, neither More nor Bacon used English, but chose Latin as their original means of expression. For what reasons? And none of these authors was in fact a free-lance writer - they were all occupied in public and political spheres. What made them actually write fictional works? How does their fiction relate to their cultural environment - or, what was regarded as 'fiction'? These texts cover a century of political, religious, scientific and literary debates and gave rise to a new understanding of knowledge, and introduced influential literary devices.

Michael Peppiatt has resources for his book that defy belief. Francis Bacon was indeed an enigmatic person and artist and I suppose that the lurid details of his existence may shed some light on the paintings. But not, I think, to the degree that the author would have us believe. Some of the most glorious works of art have been created by personalities who border on beastial (Richard Wagner, Diego Rivera, Rodin et al) and so I suppose that knowing that Bacon was night gutter tramp may illuminate some of his portaits. The book does add to the literature on Bacon by introducing a number a fascinating photographs and for the reader who needs to know it all, well here is that cluttered closet.

Great book.... I had never seen a painting of Francis Bacon and had no idea who he was. That being said, I found that the book held my attention from start to finish. Partly it was Bacon's outlandish lifestyle and the strange cast of characters who ran through his life which kept me entertained. Partly it was the analysis of art and Bacon's art in general that worked. The author excelled on both counts, mixing colorful anecdotes with insightful analysis of the work. The author is a master of words -- while reading it you may find yourself in SOHO hanging with the bohemians at a seedy bar, or perhaps getting reamed by a gangster in a public bathroom. In any event, this is a book well worth your time and money.

"Francis Bacon : Anatomy of an Enigma" is an illuminating insight into the odd life of an artist who took great pains to prevent undue public prying while alive. Bacon felt that unnecessary publicity on his own peculiar choice of lifestyle would strip his paintings of the mystique they needed to work so effectively on the most visceral levels of the viewer's nervous system.

Michael Peppiatt takes us beyond the racks of carcasses and the pained, unsettled figures in claustrophobic rooms to glimpse a painter who was disarmingly immersed in all the pleasures that life can bestow. From his financial generosity and love of fine wines and good fellowship, to the celebrated sexual experimentation and excess of his youth, Peppiatt's portrait of the artist is at once astonishing and humorous in its revelations and salacious gossip. We learn the truth behind Bacon's ill fated relationship with the gigolo-spiv George Dyer, who features so prominently in the artists 60's portraits. We read about Bacon's unlikely association with Ronnie and Reggie Kray, the gangster celebrities of swinging Sixties London, as well as a whole host of other unsavoury characters, the flotsam of a twilight 'interzone' where Bacon lurked and prowled as if to reinforce his determinedly cruel, sadistic view of the world.

Other prominent Baconian characters are also sketched with humour and compassion, including Muriel Belcher, acid-tongued proprietor of the Colony Room Club, Isabella Rawsthorne, Henrietta Moraes, George Deakin and Lucien Freud. Particularly hilarious is Henrietta Moraes' account of the origin of her famous nude photographs, many of which formed the basis for Bacon's most memorable female nudes. Unsurprising for a Baconian character, the photographer - George Deakin - having persuaded Henrietta to pose with her legs a little further apart than necessary for the particular needs of art, was caught attempting to sell her nude images to sailors in 1950s Soho. This and other splendidly sleazy stories transform what would otherwise be a bleak or pretentious subject matter into a tour de force of black humour that Samuel Beckett would be proud of.

This biography is the document which avid Baconians have long been waiting for, the perfect companion to David Sylvestor's record of Bacon's conversation and poet Michel Leiris' various essays on the Bacon world view. It will be an essential text for all those who, like Bacon himself, struggle to achieve a totally honest and unvarnished opinion of human life in all its squalor, depravity and cruelty whilst still finding the motivation not to slit one's own throat. Only recommended for those, like 'the old queen' himself, with a particularly warped view of existence.

For those of you who have spent considerable time reading about the Templars, Illuminatus, Masons, et. al. then this book would be of no shock to you. Francis Bacon in the disquise of an artist, in the disquise of the painted. The art itself lends itself to the greater mystery, and as such is a must have for any enthusiast.

Francis Bacon jolted the art world in a way that is only now, some nine years after his death, being fully appreciated. During the final years of his bizarre life he achieved fame and museum acceptance and the accompanying high figure prices for his canvases. And of course soon after his death there was the usual debate about whether he was a painter or a one note song. This beautifully presented volume seems to dispell the latter, as here is documentation of all the head-only portraits Bacon painted of his friends and of himself. His usual "brutal vision" seems less forced when the paintings are accompanied by photogrphs of the models: some of Bacon's friends were fairly distorted before his brush hit the canvas! This book allows the reader to examine a narrow part of Bacon's output and in doing so focuses keenly on his view of the world, his pallete and his technique. Very fine essays by Milan Kundera and France Borel enhance this sensitive tribute to one of the more important 20th Century figurative painters.

I wish that I could start this discussion at the level of people who have already read this book, but the more likely possibility is that I'm about the only person trying to convince anyone that a certain discussion in this book might be considered important. As much as I like Nietzsche, I tend to think about his approach only regarding a few problems that interest me. I'm actually more interested in this book for its treatment of a problem in political philosophy that was considered important enough for Bacon's views to be included in this book, but, as hardly anyone can keep up with everything that is going on, my own curiosity about which views anyone might hold are rather mute in the ominous flow of events in our own time.

People who read Nietzsche might agree that he has arrived at a philosophy which attempts to describe the world as it strikes people in modern times. The introduction of this book talks of partisans, but also of an understanding of them which allows a Hegelian "act of magic which preserves what is good for us in each inheritance while letting the junk fall away. The recovery of Bacon and Descartes reestablishes a radical and sober perspective on our spiritual heritage; in their work our philosophic and religious inheritances come to light as spiritual opponents harboring starkly different dispositions to life, and their efforts, so far from harmonizing opposites, kindle spiritual warfare between them, the warfare Nietzsche advances and brings into the open." (pp. 4-5). This book makes each of the three philosophers seem worthy of their places in the history of philosophy, but in our thoroughly comic society, the only question that those who don't know anything about this are likely to ask, is: Who are these people trying to impress?

Chapter 4 of this book, "Why Incite a Holy War?" contains a discussion as six characters present views on a war like the clash of civilizations between the superpower military complex and the fanatics, except that Bacon was writing about a situation in the 1620s which also had a context of religious warfare between Christians within Europe. Bacon had given a speech in "the prosecution of a young Roman Catholic named Owen indicted on charges of high treason for speeches advocating the lawfulness of killing a king who has been excommunicated." (p. 93). That such an act might be blessed by a particular religion is noted by Lampert in his observation, "France, where Bacon's dialogue is now unfolding, had experienced the new doctrine still more directly in the blessed assassinations of its two previous kings." (p. 93).

An insult is as subversive of this kind of thing, as well as being great for avoiding any discussion today, for those who have been doing fine without an opinion so far. This book credits one such statement to "Baconian Christianity whose charity has turned practical and technological," though it is offer in the discussion as merely an opinion, "`That the Philosopher's Stone, and an Holy War, were but the rendez-vous of cracked brains, that wore their feather in their head instead of their hat.'" (p. 87). I don't have that kind of a hat, anymore, but it seems to me that modern education, which this book might represent, is teaching students to pay more attention to what hat they are wearing in a particular situation, as the discussion of a Holy War does, than to attend to anything which might be innate in their brains, which may be pretty unlikely in a society whose relentless messages are supposedly based on endless flexibility.

My big disagreement about these things goes back to the postmoral stance proclaimed on page 5, which is "heir to ten thousand years in the development of conscience." Dividing the 2,000,000 people in prison in the United States today by those 10,000 years might mean that, compared to what most of us have learned each year, there have always been another 200 people who didn't quite get it yet, and, if they were easy enough to catch, had to be added to the number of people in prison each year. As embarrassing as it is to think about anything, expecting such precision in our thinking about how things really go has now become as unlikely as expecting any results from philosophy. I shouldn't pick on a great book like this, but these are hard times.

Bacon and Descartes appear in this book not as mere proto-scientists but as the great philosophers and rhetoricians that they truly were. Lampert writes beautifully and brilliantly and his close reading of Nietzsche and his precursors makes for an exceptional book.

i love that francis bacon is credited in the title above as 'illustrator" in dennis farr's little retrospective. bacon who sought to avoid illustration in his paintings by creating a reality, often relying somewhat on chance, that if inaccurate was in his mind 'greater' than the truth. this taken from a very moving quote from van gogh, whose letters and paintings francis studied closely. the reverse landscape in question is in fact reversed - its like an error card. otherwise the text is intelligent and the body of work is well chosen but there are so many bacon paintings its hard to find a comprehensive publication.

somebody else said the color needed work. i have definitely seen much worse. one of the images might be flipped, maybe there were problems reproducing certain colors - i never saw the originals so how would i know - but overall i have to assume it's fairly accurate; at least, it works. it's nice that the descriptions face the plates, but that's just common sense. overall it's a fairly comprehensive collection. there are only a couple pieces left out here that i miss, but i can find them in practically any other bacon book so it's no big deal.

Well, here it all is - the paintings, the analysis of the person, the milieu that aided in the production of this prodigious artist, brilliant essays that go further than predessors into the hows and whys of Francis Bacon - the much anticipated Retrospective book and exhibition. One of the finest aspects of this book is the placement of descriptions of the background and the implications of each painting adjacent to the work. No search party needed here. If only as much attention to detail would have been spent on the four color separations of the works then this would truly have been the definitive work about one of the most exciting painters of the last century...AND chronicler of the disintegration of society and mentality brought about by the dissecting sciences.

The chattiness is fine. I haven't seen Collings on television but I can imagine how he'd be entertaining there. I wondered about his motives a few times when Collings' own paintings showed up deep in the background of photos -- obviously he's so deep in this world that he may have some agendas. But the overall impression is certainly friendly and the few artists he dismisses are big enough to take it. It's a fun book you can read in a couple of hours. The only problem then is remembering any of what's been said.

I recommend this for the photos, almost completely. And I do not mean the cover photo where the author, Matthew Collings, has chosen to put a huge picture of himself with an eye-trapping bullseye painting behind his head. This mystified me, till I read the incredibly disorganized, ungrammatical account Collings writes, really more of a reminiscence than a history. Along the way he attacks the brilliant R.B. Kitaj and the rest of the School of London(including those such as Bacon and Freud) as "a bunch of oldsters exhibiting their charcoal life drawings and stuff." Incisive commentary that. Collings must make Robert Hughes tremble. Basically this is one huge self-promotional book, but generously illustrated with works of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin and others from the infamous and brilliant SENSATION show, and contains, in spite of its obnoxiously chatty style, many interesting anecdotes about the London art world. One can almost piece it together despite the annoying narrator. The current London art scene is beautifully dangerous and the SENSATION Show(and I hope its catalog goes into print in the US soon)may be, in the end, as influential as the 1913 Armory Show, so it deserves study. Art needed back some kind of edge. The book is an OK intro to the subject and the photos alone justify purchase.

My only other complaint is the constant recurrence of those completely nightmarish perversions of conceptual art, the "living sculptures"(or charlatans, as I like to call them) Gilbert and George, laced oddly throughout the book for no apparent reason. What do they do? In a nutshell, they go about and place themselves in context, in photos or live. Why they think they're interesting wherever they're placed, or make a place interesting by their presence, is beyond me, but they've apparently made a great deal of loot from this. Go figure. John Roberson

Matthew Collings is extremely aware of the zeitgeist. His criticisms can be so accurate that it hurts. To get a broad overview on the phenomena of Brit Art I really can't reccommend it enough.

This is a beautifully produced little book, full of excellent reproductions and elaborate pull-outs of Bacon's triptychs which give greater scope for appreciation than more conventional formats allow. Domino's text initially seems more simplistic than simple, discussing the artist's life, work, methods and themes very accessibly and predictably, but you end up with a clear sense of the art and its mechanics which might have been obscured in more technical books. It is as frustratingly ahistorical as Bacon's paintings though, and this book (as well as a recent visit to teh Dublin retrospective) tends to confirm my suspicions that Bacon was not as great as we all once thought. The book appends a section called 'Documents', full of reminiscences from acquaintances, and analyses by the likes of Gilles Deleuze.

Christophe Domino has managed to distill a body of work into a near pocket-sized edition, but with amamzing accuracy and attention to detail. As an admirer of Bacon's work and ideas, it is obvious that a book like this would not have been possible without the seminal work of writers David Sylvester and Michael Peppiatt respectively, but it is very well done none the less. From background information on the artist to one of the most suprising collection of photographic references available to date, the author does an outstanding job of doing with this book what most books twice this size struggle with. This book is highly recommended for anyone who is curious about the work of Francis Bacon, or simply as an amazing and concise review of facts for those who are already aware of the genius of the "greatest living (now deceased) painter".

Hmm, this is interesting. Despite the convoluted prose I was able to plow through this in a couple days (it's less than 50 pages long). The cover and all looks cheap on this edition but it's the content that counts, and the content is interesting. NEW ATLANTIS posits an alternate history for America and is intended to supply an example of a Utopian, scientifically overachieving society. It's an interesting look at the philosophy, symbolically expressed, of a man considered a great "rational" philosopher. Not bad.

The significance of this book speaks for itself to the knowledgeable reader. This edition , in hardcover, is the one I am glad I purchased. The Foreword is very informative and the appendix is useful with respect to an issue related to pagination in the contemporary edition. The typestyle which appears to be some sort of typewriter Courier font detracts and gives it a "term paper" feel. In this age of web publishing, there is no excuse for not using a more pleasant, and professional looking font. Nevertheless, overall an excellent version for the serious student.

This is a very clear and readily assimilated translation of what may be considered the manifesto of the scientific revolution. Translating a seventeenth century Englishman, writing in latin, back into english: should it be the english he would have written at that time, or is a more ahistorical rendering ppropriate? Sometimes I wondered if the translation might be a little too up-to-date in its sensibilities and I found myself returning to the latin original to be reassured that Bacon's original intent had been rendered. Although the text is admirably clear a few more footnotes would have been welcome. Those provided are either somewhat cryptic and brief notes of textual readings, or on the other hand, notes on personages that seem to pander too much to the ignorance of today's students - vero media est. Though the second part of Novum Organon seem but little removed from the alchemists den, Bacon's first part is as relevant to the scientific enterprise today as it ever was - modern physicists and geneticists should consider carefully whether, as aphorism LXIV warns, empiricism may be a greater danger than sophistic dogma ever was.