Yves Peyré’s book Francis Bacon ou la mesure de l’excès was published by Gallimard, with financial support from the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, to accompany the major exhibition ‘Bacon en toutes lettres’ held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from 11 September 2019 to 20 January 2020.
Yves Peyré, a writer who was friends with Francis Bacon, has produced a remarkably comprehensive study of the artist’s life and art both in terms of analysis and as regards reproductions of paintings and drawings. He discusses the uncategorisable artist’s major contribution, from his beginnings as a designer on the eve of the 1930s to his last great triptychs from the late 1980s, offering a touching personal view of Bacon’s complex personality and extraordinary artistic output ‒ a tormented, sometimes violent body of work that reflects the artist’s inner wounds but is illuminated by his sense of colour and quest for the absolute.
Peyré’s finely-honed account indisputably offers a new approach, whose in-depth interpretations considerably broaden our view of the work. Drawing on the author’s close relationship with Francis Bacon, it takes the reader on a philosophical, poetic and artistic stroll through the various stages of an exploration that was incisive in every respect.
The book received the 2020 Prix Bernier awarded by the Académie des beaux-arts for an outstanding book on art. An English translation entitled Francis Bacon or the Measure of Excess was published by ACC Art Books in 2020.
In French
