Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Ireland

Francis Bacon was one of the great visionaries of Surrealism and Expressionist painting in the UK. In 1926, Bacon moved from Dublin to London where he designed furniture and rugs. During the 1930s, he only painted sporadically, but from the mid-1940s onward he devoted himself entirely to art.
His figurative painting is bold and characterized by an immediate nearness and reverse intimacy that only the excluded individual may perceive as a center of focus. Bacon’s paintings of distorted animal bodies and deformed people trapped in confined spaces radiate deep anxiety and a strong despair about life. Many of his works also suggest elements of homoeroticism.
Bacon’s paintings were often based on the works of other artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Eadweard Muybridge. In addition to his expressive deformed images, he painted many portraits, including self-portraits.