"If you want to convey fact, this can only ever be done through a form of distortion. You must distort to transform what is called appearance into image."
Francis Bacon was a larger-than-life figure during his lifetime and remains one now more than ever. Famous for keeping a messy studio, and even more so for his controversial, celebrated depictions of papal subjects and bullfights, often told in triptychs, Bacon signified the blinding dawn of the Modern era. His signature blurred portraits weren't murky enough to stave off his reputation as highly contentious—his paintings were provocations against social order in the people's eye. But, Bacon often said, "You can't be more horrific than life itself."
In conversation with yet challenging the conventions of Modern art, Bacon was known for his triptychs brutalizing formalist truths, particularly Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which Bacon debuted in London in 1944, and Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which became famous when it set the record for most expensive work of art at auction at the time it sold in 2013.
1983 The complete set of three lithographs in colours, on Arches paper, with full margins, all I. 66.8 x 49.5 cm (26 1/4 x 19 1/2 in.) all S. 86.2 x 60.7 cm (33 7/8 x 23 7/8 in.) all signed and numbered 63/180 in pencil (there were also a number of artist's proofs), published by Galerie Lelong, Paris, all framed.
Estimate £12,000 - 18,000 ♠
Sold for £32,500
Contact Specialist Robert Kennan
Editions, London rkennan@phillips.com +44 207 318 4075