Francis Bacon - a documentary and resources about his life and work

Francis Bacon was on BBC4 last night (again). You may have missed him the first time - but you can catch up. I found it fascinating and it explained for me a number of the conundrums about him.

The links below provide access to the programme and an insight to both the programme, his website, his life and his studio.

Francis Bacon's studio at the City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin, Ireland
plus see the links to the High Lane Gallery and Guardian article about it below

These are:

• the iPlayer link to the BBC4 programme Francis Bacon: A Brush with Violence

Francis Bacon was the loudest, rudest, drunkest, most sought-after British artist of the 20th century. Twenty-five years after his death, his canvases regularly exceed £40million at auction. Bacon's appeal is rooted in his notoriety - a candid image he presented of himself as Roaring Boy, Lord of Misrule and Conveyor of Artistic Violence. This was true enough, but only part of the truth. He carefully cultivated the facade, protecting the complex and haunted man behind the myth. In this unique, compelling film, those who knew him speak freely, some for the first time, to reveal the many mysteries of Francis Bacon.

• the Radio Times article about the programme Francis Bacon: A Brush with Violence

“In the wilderness of postwar art he is the towering giant”
Brian Sewell

• the Francis Bacon website
• the Wikipedia article about Francis Bacon (artist)

Image from the home page of the Francis Bacon website

• the Hugh Lane Gallery in Ireland which relocated and now houses Francis Bacon's Studio - which now provides an amazing resource about both his life and work.
• History of Studio Relocation
• Videos
• Bacon's Life
• Artist's Materials
• Works on Paper

Over seventy works on paper were found in Bacon's Reece Mews studio and these are now in the collection of the Hugh Lane Gallery. They are among the most important discoveries of the project. In all the interviews Bacon gave from around 1962 onwards, he denied that he made any preparatory drawings before he started to paint. Some of his close friends knew that he produced drawings and even owned some of these works, but they followed Bacon's wish to keep them out of the public domain.

• Photographs
• Slashed Canvases
• Books
• Furniture
• Publications
• Bacon Kids
• the Tate website which has an article about Francis Bacon 1909-1992
• the Lucian Freud painting of his friend Francis Bacon - Oil on copper, 7×5 (18×13)
• the Marlborough Gallery which used to represent him and which continues to have a number of his graphic works
• The Independent article about Francis Bacon: the last interview
• The Guardian interview with Bacon - Francis Bacon: Box of tricks

On the eve of a major retrospective at Tate Britain, Aida Edemariam visits the artist's studio - painstakingly recreated in a Dublin gallery after his death. But what does this tiny, chaotic space really reveal about the birth of Bacon's art?