Alberto Burri
White B
1965
On view
Francis Bacon
March 1957
Although Francis Bacon is best known for his alienated and often hideously distorted human figures, animals are the subject of at least a dozen of his canvases. He rarely worked from nature, preferring photographs. Intrigued by the disconcerting affinities between simians and human beings, he first compared them in 1949. Like his human subjects, Bacon’s animals are shown in formal portraits or candid snapshots in which they are passive, shrieking, or twisted in physical contortions. The chimpanzee in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection work is depicted with relative benevolence, though the blurring of the image, reflecting Bacon’s interest in frozen motion and the effects of photography and film, makes it difficult to interpret the pose or expression. In composition and treatment, it is close to paintings of simians executed in the 1950s by Graham Sutherland, with whom Bacon became friendly in 1946. The faint, schematic framing enabled Bacon to “see” the subject better, while the monochrome background provides a starkly contrasting field that helps to define form.
On view
Artist | Francis Bacon |
Date | March 1957 |
Medium | Oil and pastel on canvas |
Dimensions | 152.4 x 117 cm |
Credit line | Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) |
Accession | 76.2553 PG 172 |
Collection | Peggy Guggenheim Collection |
Type | Painting |
Copy caption
On view
Alberto Burri
1965
On view
Vasily Kandinsky
1913
On view
El Lissitzky
ca. 1919–20
On view
Anthony Caro
1990–93
Not on View