Interviews with Francis Bacon - David Sylvester

The extraordinarily revealing interviews with Francis Bacon conducted over a period of
25 years by the distinguished art critic David Sylvester amount to a unique statement
by Bacon on his art and on art in general. In the book, a classic of its kind, Bacon
considers the problems of realism and sheds new light on aspects of his life. With
a rare and brilliant use of language, Bacon talks about his aims as a painter and
ways in which he works, responding always with vivacity and candour to Sylvester's
searching questions. Bacon's obsessive effort to record and re-create the human
form, his practice of making variation on old masters' painting and on photographs,
his dependence on chance, and his views about the way in which his work has been
interpreted are only some of the many subjects discussed and investigated in depth
during these historic encounters.