>> charlie welcome to the oadcast. tonight visit knock's meopolitan museum of art for a conversation with s new director, omas campbell who succeeded philip. also gary te row, the engelhardepartment of 19th centurmodern andcontemporary art. and also the cure raritier of the exhibition, frances baycon, a retroective. >> to see the painting in these galleries, f galleries away from european artists. i think it's great to mak a fresh assessment. inedibly powerful and challenging artist en now. disconcerting as when he first paed his works. >> think he did something rerkable with his figures. he started, he couldn't est he very mh builton their

precedent. but he took their innovations one step fther and h expiration of man nature brought art a new place. >> charlie: ances con and his paintin next. ptioning sponsored by rose communications from our stuos in new york city, this is charlie rose.

>> charlie: t artist frances y conis one ever the most renowned painters of 209th century. hisprovocative and r pictions of the human bodyre among the most powful images in the history of art. he was selfaught and emerged as a major artistic force in the 1940s. blo picasso played a role. he credits him as th reason i paint. early wos such as study for portra and "figures in a landscape" focus on the animalistic quities of mankind. his later work became increasing inuencedy narrative,ut a biography and myth. these elemts can be see in patings such as "inmemory of george dyer" and "self portrait" near the end of his life bacon began to address t idea of mortality as seen. extraordinar new retrospecve is t first maj new york exbition devoted to bac in 20 years. frances bacon a rrospective

marks the 10th anniversar-- 100th of his birth. in it are 66 of his works include can war eiffel marial from thestate. i toured t ex -- >> what's l significce of it? this exhition. >> the significance of bay i think this is t first hearin neyork. this is the first bigacom show in new york r 20 years. provides an opportunity to take aresh look at his achievement. perhaps at one step away fro thelarger an lif perso, he s a national lif persona, which tends toind of inflict the way we think about him, think about his work. >> charlie: nothing

uninteresting about france bacon. >> no queson about that. here to see the paintings i these lleries, few gallies ay from the great canon of european artists think it'sn opportuny to really make a fresh assessent. they are perful and challenge artist en now. disconcerting when he first painted these wos. >> charlie: wn people come here, you hope ty will go away with that but in broader sense, why >> we have somhing like or of his paintis from collections around the wor. it provides an opportunity for ourudience to really folw the delopment of his work from earliest breakout right the way rough the ups and downs of hi career. through to the last years.

it's a unique oortunity to respd and somethin that these are paintings at -- >> arlie: crea a reac? >> exactly. the subject matt is frequently disturbi,npleasant, ev revolting. yet athe same time it surfaces of the paintin are so seduive. but they are so engaging in tes of texture, paint, denial of lushness. you are compelled look. >> charlie: also, gary tintow of the engelhard museum is also the curator. here is that conversation. >> the question always com when you he a remarkable exhibition. why now? why ances bacon some, what, 20lus years later? >> well, ourretextas the sen

toary of his birth. we get to have the exhibion. especially inurope but it been 20 years in new york i think bacon looks very diffently today thadid he 20 years ago. >> charlie: how does look toda >> i think he loo different to us bause we've change in those0 years. e thing he's dead, he can't control his lacy. hifriends can no longer sensor their remarks thecritical ke on the pictures. we have access to a studio and ncept of the studio that we have much more precise understanding what hewas using, what influences his were. lastlyhe whole discussion about his sexuality has complely changed in the 20 years nce he was last seen. >> charlie: how h it changed? >> i think we're mh more open to altertive lifeslehat people and t in the nor is more acceptable even people

becae that have. >> crlie: in britainthere are storieshen we first began to pnt. they we worried where it would be exhibited. >> precisely. and sensor ship -- this was ini 27? >> he 33 or he 34 then studi th were in '45. t then most paintin often had to do whchristian imagery, the issue there was, a kind of squeamishness aboutis take on christianity and onhe iconography. >> wre do you put him? he is what? >> he is onef the greatest figurative pntershat europe produced in the 20th centu. one of the mt important influences on contemporary inting, espially today. >> charlie: what makes him that? >> ihink he did something remaable with his human gure. hetarted, based on -- he couldn't exist without pick

coulso and others, he built on their presenceent. but heook their innovation one step furth. >> itrought art to a ne place. >> charlie: wen to pis in 27 was knocked out by picasso, even thoughit was not spectacular -- >> it was smaller.very playful e amoeba-like gures on the beach, oning cabin doors with keys. you see that openi of the door in his later art. but that kind o playful surrealism was somhing that captivated baconnd persuaded him that he wanted to be a painter, that ry much dominated his imageryor the next 15 years or so. >> charlie this exhibition, at the tate, how is it different? when you bring it to an american

audience do u change? we did. forwo reasons. e large exhibitio lasting over a year, enders are reluctant to give up their wk for enre year. there's an automatic changing everhe guard fr one venueo the next but i saw the possibility here of ronstituting some ofis portant, pivot alex hi picks, in 12953 in new york, e heads in londoin 1949. i nted to give a sense of the groupings in which he exhibited his work in order to show people today ait of how h wantedis work to be understoo at the timee first presented ito the publ. >> charlie: y talk abt an arti and appreciation ofho orhe is, tre's always a frequently exaggerat sense of self. >> hwas amazingly ambitious. evenhat he was setting himself

up against picasso, 21 years old havingis work exhibited -- or paindn a important work in 34 opposite full page illustrations of picasso. that's audacious. but he always had ver high sights for himself and for his t. >> charlie: and thought he was good? >> o i think he always thoug he wasn't good enough. at's what made him better. he was never sf satisfied although i think he was, especially middle an later life very happy man and lived t life that he wanted to lead for himself. was always dissatisfied wit his work, that pushed him further. and he was his severistritic, often destroying paintings then the yor docks there is, he also destroyed his bes work because thwork that he thoug was going se place might tually arrive wod be the work thahe would workon too muchnd then he'd have to desty.

>> charlie: i't there a sty of an exhibition of his paintings early which there was bad revi he stroyed all of them? >> absolutely. in the '30s. destroyed most of his work from the '30s. a few bits and pieces have emerged in later years, but in terms of h official catalog, he wld not admit anything before 14. >> charlie: even thoh he 33 was -- >> iwas lustrated. couldn't erase what was known andllustrated. buwhen he could he could destroy things. what's also intesting since his death a number of very impoant paintings haveemerged from the hea 50s, were carefuy kept by his frar was able to show them and sell them. charlie: have america critics been differe about him than british crits? >> yes. that's very inresting. one wod need a lot of psyclogists to determine why that the american critichave such such a tough tim with bacos art. his artising, it is

procative, it is meant to provoke and give the visitor outsidof their comfort ze. on the other hand, there's a kind of uniform andutomatic rejection his work as being hysterical the "new york tis" said, if paintings could sak, bacon's would shriek. sohat exaggerated distortion, the gruesomeness of his imagery, a lot of people simply object to. bugenerally american critics, escially sophisticated one complainhat he's a bad inter. that he doesn't kno compition, that he's a bad drafman. doesn't know what to be do with t edges of his painting. an to a certain extent all the criticisms a valid. but in the end his paintings are so compelling, they continue to shoceven toy after all the vience that we are constantly bombarded with from television, vies, media. what we see in theewspaper ery day. his paintin still havethis

extraordiny powero move pele. and that to is the botto line. that's wt makes him a go pater. >> chaie: also the waye salife? he said, that when people would ask him about his gesome imagery, he'd say, peopl complainhat i show the horrible sidesf life. and he said, no, what i'm trying to show is the excitent of life. and for m that excitement, that thrl w the thrillof a masochist for whom pain or contemplation some of futu pain or injury was to him exciting >> charlie: andexual. >> and sexl. and so thas the underlying current think throughout the exhibition ishat, why we see ucifixion was a kind of meeting ple for a terrible injury to occur, ere man could do harm to another man. and for him it was a snd in for everhing that hums are

capable of. >> charlie: ithink i td astor rei once had an opportunity to have lunchith frd, he talked about seeing that in his friend, frances bacon. and rebelling at it. >> bacon himlf could be very cruel. he was a debater, is a art fellow, he wld like to trap you in conversation. generay he wouldn't succeed because by the timyou were ving that really ieresting conversation he was totally smashed. but -- charlie: he was a hard drker as wel as -- >> a life long alcoholic, solutely committed alcoholic but a functioning e in the sense that h woke everyorning and then would drink every afternoon. rarelyould he drink while he was painting. only a few exceptions to that. >> charlie: did he int neceary not to drink to int to the fullest extent of his powers. >> aolutely. i think he undstood a bit like drunk driving. if you're going to dri well you don't do it while u're drinking. similarly th a painting. there's onpainting that th

second big crucifion scene that he did in 19 forhe tate and guggenim. he h said sevel times inteiews that did he that on a two-week drinking binge. but others was disciplined in his life he'd g up in the morning at 7:00, pat untiloon,have a smart lunch, go to his gallery, go drinkinin the afternoon. to the lathours of thevening th be taken homey somebody in the taxi, wake up at 7:00 clear-heed uil noon again. >> charlie: h lived to be how old? he died in 92. >> 8 years old. died of coue ofailure of his liver. charlie: youaid that he wants to knockou out of your x-rays owns. means he wants you think about what? >> i think wants you to see life as he s it. so to a certai exte he's railing agains convention, received wisdom. he was an old-fashioned militant

atheist. he knew everopportunity to remind people that not was god notdead, god never existe that there w no meaning to life. but at the same -- but he says, i'm optimist, i'm an an t mist about nothing. not that he wasgoing to gto some bette place he looks forward to each w day for the opportunities at that would bring. opportunities for pleasure. and felt it was in come want on man and woman tmake meaning in tir life on a daily basis >> charlie: e reminds you of picasso or he simy the picasso of his time? >> they overpped. >> crlie: of course. >> they're only 30 years art. withhe great thing about con, he had the secon retrospective given tohe ling artist in france in1972. e firstxception having be picasso '66. so, bacon not oy was challengingicasso's supremacy,

there was a pole madein971 on occasion of the sw after frenchman who is greest living painter. bacon came out on top. and the figure w, which is the conservative daily said at -- picassis still alive how could a britis painter surunt picass that's whe -- he set his sights up against picasso, certainly e figureal defamation. an the other ndatisss, a key influee in the way bay consets his figes on e mob chrome grnd. a lot that he is coming from matisse. >> charlie: do you see bacothe same evoluon you saw in picasso, ndentical but same sse of look c for new form a lookingto do it i a new way? >> we aange the works much moretrictly

ronologically. yosee thatvolution unfd. i think the public respondsto that. you see how in the first hf he was mob chrome painter -- monochrome painter. he doesn't kw what to do wit it. he breaks out around 1962, void by scess ofhis exhition of the career reipt prospective. in this room you see the very stro colors that he wod then use for the next years. at the end ois life the's amazing clary and revolution his art and wher it's no longer matisse and picasso who s guiding spirit, it's ang. he set himself up agast ang. >> charlie: y say them all in the same breath. >> oh,yeah. a very modern way. he doesn't -- i woun't y -- in america, i wouldn't say that bacon is the -- exceeds matisse, picasso ang in his innovations.

>> charl: he was self ught. >> you have t understand the milieu in which he grew . he wasorn to aristocratic family, living in country hoe outside of dublin, movinto london. taught my tutors. he only had 18 mths of formal education at boarding school. apart from that, he was i think ite conscientusly taught by tutor. he lived with his nanny until he was 40 yrs old, was very well read. i think there's something out that self educati or education with private tutorshat encurnlis one to work harder to discover, this is n the education being forced upon you, but your own initiave. >> charlie: it may be deep then. >> perps. certainly heas great lover of classical literature, of

contemporary poetry, was a grea inuence on him. he was well read andidely re. >> charlie: it is ao said that he a chronicle of the grotesque. >> that is ofourse the problem that he is constantly rubbing our face in our own mess, the ss that men and women can do to one anoer. and constant reminding us o our bestiaty. he would saythat we're just neat. he said that his subject w history europe in hiswn time and this could be theassacre, the testy mission, the bodily injuries that he shows us that's history of eupe. >> chaie: that he expeenced. >> yes. he, too, suffered, absolely. >> charlie: it is said th he goeall the way back tois father beating him and hiring --

>> not clear whetheris father beat him or -- charlie: he had the groomsma-- >> carrying to bacon. >> right. those were hisfirst innse experiences, right, ing whipped. weo know that he had a few abusive relatiohips in his life. he cald the love of his life beat himnd harm to him. that he found it thrling that'shat, when he sessionhe nts to show the thrill of lifethe excitent of life that's specifically wh he's talking abo. but s lar relatnships were not necessari -- dyer, certainly his last relationshi john edwards, they had very sweet and tender rationship. bacon ing very patern if not avavuncular tord him and edward being protecte of bacon. what is real interesting you see inhat the art. you see the clari and resolutionn the great work

which sometng to doith his loss. >> crlie: like picasso. >> jus as with picasso o has to look at the dogs and lovers, it is true of bacon, too. extraoinary symmetry which is canny. with dyer it's interestg, thr relationship disintegrated, dyer was very weak personality. he himlf was falling apart d many suicide attems. i think part of bacon wasaying good rid dance. at least he's not suffering at least i dot have to suffer. i don't have to dealith that mess any more. the other hand for the next five to six years he was dealing with the grief, th loss, his own guilt atthe cplicity of dyer as death. >> charlie: when doou think he kw that h wanted to be an arti? >> he said it was in >> charlie he went to pis in 1927.

>> 1927 for 1929. he went ba after - >> charlie when he came back from paris and berlin to london, he knehe wanted toaint. >> he did. t he worked for that first deca as interior dece. sometimes as petty thief and gentleman's coanion. but did a a lot of work as decorators. the kind of x-it fellow for well to do gentleman. >> charlie: e knew he was gay early on >> i thi from the very beginng, as early as probably early 30s. >> charlie: what amazes me, all those paintings at the same time he called it like --t was so quite. >> think he d all the marks of an individl who was living in a repressive environment. so, he -- >> charlie: repressive of his environment rather tha his -- >> that's wh heknew,right? therfor he assumed this

positionnd vocabulary, the kits course of the oppressive class. >>harlie: the regious stuff, the ige reof crucifixion. >> was very caref interterry views they seeme raer stage the fascating. to the state whenever he could that he spected ristian ethics. and that he thout that they were among the best ethics of e panoply, the men that one could chse from. he recognized the christian way of life is e of the best -- >> charlie: like doing to others as u would have -- >> and he -- >> charlie: the ced for ling. >> precisely he regnized the effectiveness much christian iconogrhy. heasn't brought up in that environment, he nted to chanl that power and energ at theame time he said that he -- his cmon sense prented

him om believing in the church. he also felt that the church didn't belie in him. so it was a kind of mutual rejection. >> charlie his influence b the lm? >> he sa if he weren't a inter that he would have liked to be a film mer. and in his five or eight versions of a painting that he would exhibit together, there is something that he's trng to seup considert was one -- >>he film which he saw i berlin during that era. again in 1935 hmayave seen it but that famous scene on the sts where a nse with a baby in a stroller is shot by one o the troops right inhe eye. her eye glasses are broken. he had a still from that. he used that many times for

picturesf figures the brokenglasses as the quintessential ea of man's capacity for evil. >> charlie: what schoo of the paincontinuing he reject? >> i think he was interested in all painting he we know that he was looking at many. rtainly lookingat tition, phael, spanish masters monet, dugot a painting in this room. there is a rif on the female figure studies that bay conis seen on the le nude. like picasso said, weak artists borr great artists steal. bacon would steal. he was absolutely una boost about it. >> charlie: did he like abstract expressnism? >> he always felt competitive

with the american expressionists he was rejected by important critics re in america. he was rejected becaushe was a figurative painter. and amerin critics, rowsnberg, greenber ler generation ft that in order to be modern painter, in order toe the nex step in history o art,ne had to be an abstrt paint. that was the only altertive fogrand painting. bacon rejected tha felt that there wamuch more to be said throh figurative painting. >> charlie: when dide begin to shift to portrture? >> in th '60s. when the success of the tate exhibiti, '62. also the death ofhis mother, finding this newcrowd in london, isabel rothc all the figure in this room,e became a

portitist, he wanted to cate a nse of diary of the peoe around him. there wereany figures. >> charlie: whedid he go from portraitureto landscapes? anwhy? >> it's interting that he probly turned to landscaping in times of personal loss. one the first exames would be ing to morocco after his iend, peter lacy died while he was in london. through the town that he was buried and does remarkabl landscape, whi is here inthe exhibition then in the '70s turned again to landsca painting after the death of george dyer. "piece of wteland" they' nonfigurate. but ere's action in the figus. i think the conversati there is about acti painting.

he's ming a commeary on the rise o abstract expressiism, abstract paintg and making his -- this is h challenge. blood of the pavement,ou look athat paintinsee the stacked bandss you wou in a rosco, similar pallet. but simy to theitle "blood a pavement" there's so many more -- s much me resonance there. sets upof associations in a view's mind. hear bacon saying, you see, . rosco, simply by lling my paint snook bld on a pavement" can have mh more profound relationship with my viers than you can. rosco not here, his painting can makeou cry and be extraordinary moving but in a diffent way.

in the paintings,bacon i tting up a dialue with the abstct painters. he always felt competitive with him. >> charl: then he went to self portrts. >> he said aer dyer died that he did lot of self portraits because everyone died. that happens t everyone. but he felt a tremendous sense of loss. on the one hand, he saw tragedy in life. on t other handit was occurring him. he dealt with as best he could. >> charlie let's take loo some of the these paintings let me begin with the figures at the base of arucifixion. >>nteresting first the title that he calls it "studies for figures at a base of a crifixion." thiss the lale of brutality, it's n the christian crifixion that we're all familiar with. this is a paintg that

ablutely vaulted him to aind of regnition and pulsion and notoriety in po-war london. the it somehow struck theote inhe mood of ndon that the war was coming to alose. ithappened to be swn after r died, and that rognition that the end of the war was at hand and the tally, t toll could be tallied anas europeans began to look around and see t destrucon that they had wrought on one another, the millions of les taken. and people are asking, why. i thk bon's painting shows the helessness, the despair, the futility of any answer t that question. and with this painting he pu his finger on the pulse of

people's ownextraordinary recognitn of what just ha happed. >> charlie: e considered it his first masterpiece? >> absolutely. and it is. i think it'till the painting meret the met. it was thepainting that come up, the slide that me up in ery single talk. so many of the elents there, the grimace, t scream, picasso biomorphics to reali. and al very interesting but not apparent, is the fact that e receding lines, the kind of space in which the figures operate are probably taken from photogphs of albert spears' time in berlin. not only is he collecting nazi memorabilia, he's interested in authoritarian space. >> charlie: the nt one is painting 1946. figus at basefrucifixion.

>> a maerpiece, paintg 1946 this is one that had so many of the themes and charactistics and motif, is th he would use. the screamg, the silent scream grimacing mouth, the appings of authority like umbrella. hoistedbove the figure as if were an african king. the garlandsat the top, the painting is called by his british fries "the butcher shop" why? because the garlands at the top are like the sausages of butcher shop would decorate their window w. and there's this great carton of mt. here he is looking at the expression, also rembrandtwho extraordinary carcass at the alreadyouvrend then agai for baco

and being the crucifion. you see the slabof meat in e foreground. those are there because bacon always said, i'm surprised when i too a butcher shop that i'm on one side of t counter t the otr. >> arlie: next one. head one. one of theeries of six heads show in 1949t the hanover gallery in london. this is e painng given to us recently by the state of richard zypher a key painting f bacon as well, one at he kept a reproduction in his kihen for many years. it shows this amoeba-ke formless head with the grimacing mouth. bacon bought in ris in 15 a book called"thedicts of th mouth" he had an operation on the uppe mouth. he said that he wished heould paint the mouth, which he sai glittered far as he was

concerned. like monet would pai a sunset. john russell ler recalled the site of seeing these heads in london, john russell we both knew, lovy man,as early component of bacon, one of the first reewersonsistently reviewing hiwork in "the londonimes." said the painting reminded him of the expernce of social disintegrati that one might ve at aarty whe suddenly you're all alone in th om. ere's no mirror in the rm. anself nscious you feeyou are at onceall es, all ear, all mouth. that sense ever disintegration something at bacon i think puts forward s remarkabl in these pictures. part of his own cleave in ex be e exe -- >> charlie: the usef the white line? >> that was space cage. he needed to create simply sense of space in thepictures. th i think is coming out o

degot, his ballet scenes, think,ew receding lines just sort of make a room -- or stage then get over it so that h could place hisigures within that fame wo. charlie: the next son head three. >> head three is one of the first instces where we see a direct quotation of the film with the broke asses, shattered glasses. had to do again with man's fragility and capaty to injury one another. >> crlie: next next o is headix. is is 1949. >> head six is the first many, i don' know, 20, 25 riances. interesting that the capet that he wears i violet rather

thancarlet as it should be. as it is ithe rosco wch is probably the pro to his asrtion that he ner saw the painting,t least not then. he was living in rome foawhile inher a '50se sd he didn't dare go s the painting. wonderfuinterview that's tevised, saw it again on youte, where he said, i was afraid to go see it. because ofll the silly tngs that he had done t that picture. tonswer yourarlier question, what did he thinkf his own work, when it came to comparing hill sf to rosco's he had no self dution about his own abilit >>harlie: in 1950 study after vasquez, which h use the curtain collapse the figure in the background. >> the interesng thing about this motif, healled it shuttering, like there we shutte, vertical strip. it's aually very difficult to do to interrupt the image to only paint parts that are revealed.

we had a marvelous talk here by a painter, extraordinarily influenced by ban. brilliant individual d wonderl critic of bacon's work she brought up t point that this -- this shuttering, the stripes by making half of t painting invisible it forces us to work twice as hard to recompose the ime. it's a way ofdrawing vitor in, drawing r attention, forcing us to worknd enge with the pictu. at the same time, martin hammer, the artist, had suggestedthat ose vertical shafts olight e probably coming from e photograph tt he had of the so-called cathedral of light a e nuremberg stadium where hitler wouldave his ralls. thousandleg lights would g on a the same te and extraordinary optical affect. >>harlie: his attitude about authority was... >> i think he had a problem with

authority. e could safely say that, tha he had problems wit father figures, clear. at the samtime he said that he was very adept, i think, psychologically, he understo where much of his o behavior came f. he sd at the same time i recoize that i was attract to my fatr sexuay. it wasn'tntil later in life that i recnized early on that i had that. but he see that as formation of his own xuality. >> chaie: his attraction to his father? >> a yng boy. in that y might be attracted to his mother. his early sex oects in asense was his father. >> charlie: 1953. e study of the ptrait. >> this is one -- apart from othe, painting in 1946 thisis one ever the fst shs in new york here on 57thtreet. 1953. con sent eight of the -- five

were shown. probably we have the fst instance of him making seria imery as if they were sequences in a cell. you have the pope, the same di, the same throne inach piure. you have the figure of the pop or cardinal, tned to the right, sneezing, coring his mouth as if it we stills from a fil i think he we s him develong that serial imagery that was so important him. not only for film makers,ut al marbridge early photraphers who studied amal and human motn through stop-action photography. this was tremendously important forbacon. and r the first 15 years of hiart he was constantly looking at these sources for imag that he cod use. >> charlie: in 1961, moving to the '60s, the wking on all fours. >> this painting ia direct

demonstration of his piece of morbridge. looking to his stop-actn photraphy to find that stran appearancen between motions. and here bacon is just le dugot. he never shows a performance o ballet. he showed the preparationbefore or after. because he thoht that those movements woulbe more telling an the rehearse gesture. so, what bacon was looking for just lik dugot was that expressimoment, here of course the paralytic child. >> charlie: three figur in a room in 18963. >> thisis his second g muse ter peter cy. georgeyer, some time pett thief, alcoholic, extremely goo

looking young fellow, quite in. lionized by con, certaly. he's not madevery beautiful in this painting, inact the anythi is distorted as mh as could be allowed. he called these distortns to his friend injuries. david, o of his great critics and fans, hisnterviews are availae, isn't tha just it, when you injursomeone aren't you in fact isn' that what you' doing, when yo love someone then you injury them. bacon retorted,well, isn't that what oscar wilde said? he killed ththings that he loved. t in this painting, i think what bacon is doing is creating a ff on dugot as hereated a riff on velasquez. >> charlie: porait of isabel snding in a street in soho in 1967. >> very glamorous figure in

ndon the '60s. when i see is painting, i immeately get the beatles and others runninghrough my mind. she embodied that sort of hip, sophisticated. she was a model and r bacon. extremely beautiful, although don't seit here. he is kinder to her than he has done with anyone else. he was immediately attracted t her. he maintained that ty had an affa and actuallyad sex. it's perfectly possible. he was enralled by her, had otographs taken by john acon, great photographer in london in the '60s. woed for "vogue." and was a photograph of her on the seet that bacon use for this painting. >> charlie: w was he enthlled by her? >> ihink it was her beauty, her intelligence, herglamour. the whe package was very enticing. >> charlie: i'm told d he

not like to work with live models. >> he said they inhibit him. that thenjuries thate had to perform in order t make his art, would be somehow impaired by the presence ofhatfigure. thathe needed free ran of violence to the figure tt he felt was necessary in order to make greatrt. >> charlie: the next one is two sties of a portrait. the afo mention george dr. >> agn, you ask, charlie, how does bac continue to renew his art. one was to do double ptraits in the same pture, often thinkingf the device of a mirror so that one gets different perspectives, profile, fullace. but al difrent aspects of the personality revealed. what you see in this with dyer iserhaps the disintegration of dyer's personality on the canvas. yosee the kind of injury tt he performed in s painting.

in the portrait u see something that's more recognizable and represtational of dyerhoas tremely handsome, had eat ofile, a wonderful roman no. >> charl: did he like being a model r bacon? >> i think that dyer loved -- o all acunts hereally loved bacon, was ehralled by him. amazed by him. but so i thk confuse >> charlie: hen there is this, cryptic in memory of george er, 1971. >> this some one ever the most touching paintings ithink in the exhibition and he. dyer committed suicide on the evof the big openingn paris. attend by all the figures in paris at the tim it was no accident that he committed suicide when he did, on bacon's own prescption drugs, too much alcoh. here bon couple of years later

imagin and puts hill self in the potion of observing wh dyer haddone. in the center pane we see him unlocking thdoor to what would be his dea chamber. on the lef we e h at the back becse he had this very compact figure. on the right we see a double rtrait of him as if the painting was set up on a rl and reflected in the table. but we see himisintegrating tween the two. >> charlie: the next one is "self portrait" 1973. this is after dyer's death. bacon started painting self portraits, if you describe. >> he said th he had to paint self portraits thebecause everyby had died,hat he meant by that wasthat george had died. and one senses here bacos recoition of the tragedy of

his fe m. sense of recognition of hiscomplicity and dyes death. >> crlie: why is he complicit? >> well, he eve said, ishould ve taken george with me that y. he left himlone. d he knew that he was weak and he was tired of all the dramatics of repeated suicide attempts. ban really had become weary of it at the sam time he fel bon felt guiltyor having -- taking dyer ay. with bacon no longer -- >> charlie: no purpose. >> he had no purpose in life. he obviouslycouldn't compete with theompetition. bui think we seebacon's isolation, his lonelins and with the prominent watch, the sense the passage ofime. >> chaie: the next ones no toroperate of michelle." >> that was one ever the great surrealist writers in france.

and stenographer. one of the most disnguished intellectuals of the day, happened toe married to aost wadealer in ris. ling link to picso. anhe was, david was the mos portant critic in englandn the '60s, '70 for bacon. michelle luis was foracon in paris. in thiportrait which ithink is one of the best portraitshe ever did, he turns lu in to ki of african mask,he subject of his own studies. also i methim, he really did look like this picture. very serious. luis was iortant for bacon because he ve bacon t legiticy that healways thout wh the parisian art world that bacon may ha been one of the last non-fnch

artists to think that paris was ill the capital of the art world in the 1970 fs >> charl: does it reveal new techniques that baconad mastered ithe '7? >> i thi it ds. we see tm repeate again in the lateelf portrait triptic he. where you see him using similar distortion i visited thexhibitionith a goodriend of mine who i brilliant mathemacian who deals withhaos theory and demation now working on mapping tree valves and he found these paintin scinating, because ofbacon's distortion, but at the same time distortion which is contained by certain realisticimits. >> charl: and the other "blood o pavement." >> here we see him i ink enged in o-way conversation. wherhe's saying to rco, you se simply by calling my

painting "ood on a pavement" can set up s many associaons than you can with yr sile ab stk shuns. >> chlie: the ne is jeta water". >> here i think bacon taken on all the action painters. also i think pretty explicit atement about oasms here. making aort of joke out the gesture. we alsknow it was ver hard for him to paint this. in order to ge this splashf war to work -- >> charlie: how d he do it? he did it justas you might imagine by flinging the pai. but it took ls of tries. this goeto his own practe of usg accident and trying to make the most of it. he ao know that with is painting there w -- that he had photograph of a still of a

film "blood of a poet" wre there was a chair flying in a room. a palef water that w caught in stop-action photography. this ain is another -- this is whats so extraordinar now f artist, is that we he access tois archives to, bacon, to th stuo, where everything since 13 has beeniled up in this extraordinary archaeological layering. >> charlie: the next is "portrt of john edwards." who was john edwards? >> johnedwards wasacon's last great me. heet him in '73 or'74 right aftegeorge dyer's death. he was an east ender like george. he was ill illiterate, hard to imagine,t's hard to imagine at people couldot read or write that w john edwards. i think bacon was especially attracteto that, becausee

thought was untouched -- he was uncorrupted by civization. and sayshat edwards wasust a lovely man, vyind and gentle. a ve patie and caring about bacon. a grt companion for him in his ol age. i thk one sees in ts painting inhich tellingly bacon ts edwds in the pose that george dyer had right here on my right. he h edwards supplangeorge dyer in s art. t there's no defamation the figu or to his face. is is the peri when he is looking and trying to come up with that kind of resolion, skill, harmonynd balance in his painting that h observed. >> charlie: the lt one that we take a lookt is tript 1991. te work that sort coming back to elier subjects. >> you know, the painting in

1946 and some the themes a tread. and thenhey bght the last e in 1991. self portrait triptiy. ani think it's last great picte. it'so resolute and calm and comptely resolved. here w have self portrait on the ght. he's man, he shows s genitals, he's showing h seality. you see the photograph taken from 20 years elier,polaroid, where his face is indistinct couldn't tell hiage. on left hand panel youave the image of his new young lor. whom he wentto see i his last weeks ofife. and his face is also sor of

transformein to the face a brazilian race car driver that was on the cove of a magazine and so that transformati tycal for the race car drir which the magazine reminds him his new boyfriendn madrid. then y have the r elser or copulating couple inhe center. that'shat here we of formation bacon philosophy. you are born, you have sex, you die. that all it is. so h goes to mrid in 1992, againsdoctor's orders, his liver failing, he's go very bad asthma, a his doctor says, ifou to go madrid,octor told me that at the openg of drid in february. yowon't come back alive. doctor was right. he succumbed to his illness goes to a hospital in madrid, he's cared for by sisters of charity. and dies in a bed with a

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