Francis Bacon in St Ives: Experiment and Transition 1957-62 Book

Francis Bacon is seen internationally as one of the greatest of all British painters, forever connected in the public mind with the city of London. Up to this point little has been known, or written, about the months he spent in the isolated fishing settlement of St Ives, in Cornwall; nonetheless this book demonstrates that this period of seclusion played a vital part in the genesis of his next creative step. Following his first one-man show at London's I.C.A. in 1955 Bacon came to the attention of a wide audience for the first time. He decided to sever his connection with the Hanover Gallery and was taken on by Marlborough Fine Art in 1958. Encouragement to spend time in St Ives came from his new gallerists, who were well aware of his unpredictable lifestyle in London and concerned that he concentrated on creating new work for their exhibition. They secured him a studio at No.3, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, where he stayed between September 1959 and January 1960. This book, that accompanies a Tate St Ives exhibition focusing on Bacon's art between 1957 and 1962, presents a number of the works he painted whilst in St Ives together with a selection of paintings and drawings made both shortly before and after this period. Bacon's concentration during this time on the solitary figure lying down, sleeping or walking, and his experimentation with brush strokes, colour, and chiaroscuro to create an illusion of a "moulded" form or face, is presented as a result of the important explorative time the painter spent in St Ives.Read More