Fifty Screaming Popes
Francis Bacon Head VI (1944)
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work”
I went to the RA a couple of weeks ago for Francis Bacon: Man and Beast.
It was my first time seeing a lot of the work in person. The pictures have a scale and a quality to them which is lost when reproduced in print. The way they have been hung help accentuate the content of the paintings brilliantly. Each room at the RA has been coated in dark tones. The lighting is moody.
I was particularly taken withHead VI (1944). This painting sits in a series that blends influences of Velazquez and Battleship Potemkin. The notes accompanying the painting in the exhibition suggest that he made 50 versions and variations of this painting during his career. Many of which never saw the light of day.
Fifty.
In anticipation of the exhibition, I’ve spent a lot of time reading about Bacon. About his life, his influences and his approach and process. He was notorious for destroying work. Vast quantities of paintings never left his studio. He would routinely destroy the canvas if the painting displeased him. In economic terms, the ‘waste’ must equate to millions of pounds worth of lost work.
It was a useful reminder about the importance of practice. About the importance of ‘getting the reps in’. About the way compound interest works. Creative endeavours - be that painting, or writing a blog - aren’t just about inspiration. Perspiration plays a big part too. As Verlyn Klinkenborg’s brilliant Several Short Sentences about Writing is at pains to suggest : flow doesn’t exist. Inspiration is the product of hard work. You have to manufacture it. You can’t sit around waiting for it to happen - you have to get up and go to work.
