Bacon Bashes “Dreary” Hockney
Dalya Alberge does a piece in today’s Times about a new book of recorded interviews with Francis Bacon in which Bacon describes David Hockney’s work as “dreary” and “rubbish”.
Friend and neighbour Barry Joule has 16 hours of recorded conversation with Bacon that has been held back, at Bacon’s behest, for 14 years - the book, Francis Bacon - Verbatim, will be published later this year.
Bacon, who died in 1992, also gave Joule various artworks, including 1,200 sketches worth an estimated £20m, which Joule donated to the Tate in 2004.
Good story - read it here
Art by Francis Bacon here
Art by David Hockney here
February 18th, 2006 at 3:21 am
Bacon called it right, IMO.
Not a great fan of Bacon, but his work comes over as more honest than Hockney’s. It has orginality and feeling without the ’see how clever I am’ undercurrent that is in so much of Hockney’s work.
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Barry Joule’s ‘revelations’ about Bacon calling Hockney ‘dreary’ and ‘rubbish’ are old news: Bacon also slagged off Hockney to Michael Peppiatt - as revealed in Peppiatt’s biography on Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma. Joule is just jumping on the Bacon Bandwagon trying to flog his fraudulent ‘Bacon Archive’ to the Tate.
Bacon said that he could see why Hockney was so popular because people do not have to struggle with it - it is easy - like easy listening - like painting-by-numbers. Bacon told me he also hated Lucien Freud’s work and found it too prissy, too detailed, too photo-realist with no invention. I wonder if Joule has a jewel on Bacon on Freud?