Francis Bacon: Books and Painting - Didier Ottinger

Francis Bacon loved books. The many volumes in his library are evidence of his deep engagement with literature. Bacon’s condensed statements in paint often seem to echo telling phrases from the literature that he admired – among his favourite authors were Aeschylus, T. S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Leiris and Georges Bataille. Occasionally the titles of his paintings acknowledge a literary source; however, Bacon consistently and vigorously resisted over-interpretation: his images take flight from their original literary source, owing more to a poetic visual or conceptual universe.