Francis Bacon: Late Paintings

Book excerpt: Encompassing more than twenty-five paintings that Francis Bacon made in London and Paris during the last two decades of his life, this book serves as a companion to the 2015 exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, New York, and is the first in-depth exploration of the innovations of the artist’s late work. In his late paintings, Francis Bacon refined themes that had long obsessed him. He quoted reflexively from his oeuvre, reworking subjects to strip them to the bare essentials. This stunning new book features over 150 color illustrations of the artist’s work and related materials, including reproductions of ephemera from Bacon’s Hugh Lane studio.