An exhibition of Francis Bacon prints timed to coincide with the current blockbuster show Francis Bacon: Man and Beast round the corner at the Royal Academy. This exhibition focuses on Bacon's graphic oeuvre. Bacon was biased against the print medium initially. He thought of prints as mere reproductions rather than their techniques as valid art forms in their own right. It wasn't until the proposal to illustrate the text of Surrealist poet René Crevel with his etchings that a change in Bacon's attitude was affected. This show focuses mainly on lithographic reproductions and aquatints of Bacon's more famous paintings and his own idiosyncratic take on the figure and human condition. Looking at the featured prints one can completely understand Bacon's reservations about the print medium. Something is lost in translation. These are just 'mere reproductions' of his more nuanced painted works and possibly created just as a commercial venture. As good as they are as reproductions they lack texture, the surfaces are flat and lifeless in comparison to their painted originals. Anybody having experienced an original Bacon painting will notice the differences. Unlike the print output of artists such as Rembrandt and his magnificent etchings for example, they do not say or add anything new to Bacon's oeuvre. This exhibition however serves as a nice little appetiser for what will be a more substantial main course of original Bacon paintings being served up at the RA when I visit Francis Bacon: Man and Beast.
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