Francis Bacon

My painting is not violent; it’s life that is violent.

I paint for myself. I don’t know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have to earn my living, and occupy myself.




Picasso was the first person to produce figurative paintings which overturned the rules of appearance; he suggested appearance without using the usual codes, without respecting the representational truth of form, but using a breath of irrationality instead, to make representation stronger and more direct; so that form could pass directly from the eye to the stomach without going through the brain.




Images also help me find and realise ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from them, rather like people who eat from other people’s plates.




I have been lucky enough to be able to live on my obsession. This is my only success.





It (painting) can be as violent as fucking, like an orgasm or an ejaculation. The result is often disappointing, but the process is highly exciting.