Bacon - Basic Art Series Art Book

This art book provides an overview of Bacon's visual world and his treatment of the human body in post-war figurative art.

Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was largely self-taught and developed a painting style characterized by psychological intensity and physical dissolution. His figures move in closed, often claustrophobic spaces and are rendered with distorted shapes, open cavities, and fragmented limbs. Instead of traditional portraits, he depicts the human condition, traces of memory, and emotional vulnerability. Bacon had his breakthrough after World War II and became a central figure in European contemporary art. His work challenged the norms of the time, not least by early integration of openly homoerotic motifs into visual art.

The book is part of TASCHEN's series on artists and presents a selection of works in which the body, trauma, and existential traces form a coherent visual language. Bacon's paintings remain a recurring commentary on human presence and loss.