‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 29 January – 17 April 2022. Catalogue: Eds. Michael Peppiatt and Stephen F. Eisenman, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2020, 160 pages, hardback, ISBN 1912520559, £35.00.

Abstract

The Royal Academy’s blockbuster exhibition, Francis Bacon: Man and Beast, sought to explore the ways in which Bacon looked to and drew inspiration from the animal kingdom within his art. Man, he seemed to suggest in his paintings, is just another animal. This review assesses the successes of the exhibition, interrogating the various connections made between animals and humanity in Bacon’s work, and situating the exhibition within the broader context of recent public scholarship on the artist.