"Francis Bacon: Man and Beast" at Royal Academy in London

Though titled Head I , the Royal Academy’s opening gambit obfuscates the human form, as flesh becomes a pallid, leathery mass dissipating into the dark depths of the canvas. The one resoundingly human feature comes in the faint curvature of an ear, but it is rather the fang protruding from the subject’s bestial howl that draws the gaze of the viewer.  Indeed, while scholarship on Francis Bacon (1909-1992) tends towards his depiction of abject figures entrapped in claustrophobic interiors—a trope apparent in Head I —an essential tenet that Michael Peppiatt (co-curator with Sarah Lea) believes to be “barely explored” is Bacon’s obsessive preoccupation with the animal that lurks beneath man’s veneer of civility: fear, lust, and rage are repeatedly highlighted in Bacon’s ruthless approach to the human condition. In our dark and troubled age, and with figurative art back in vogue, Francis Bacon, and this exhibition, is one for our modern times.   Installation view of the "Francis Bacon: Man and Beast" exhibition at the Royal…