Chardin 1699-1779
Soutine, 1893-1943
Francis Bacon, 1909-1992
Jenny Saville, born 1970.
It's strange to me that for all his consummate language of the grotesque, Bacon was the most lighthanded and insubstantial painters of his own namesake. He seems only able to really invest in human flesh, I think the overt carcass in his work is a weaker symbol, almost too easy. Of all of them, Saville strikes me as cold, but Bacon as the least visceral. In fact, Chardin, for all his delicate 18th century domesticity, is appealingly, repugnantly meaty in comparison. Though I'm not sure anyone could ever outdo Soutine.
Jenny Saville, born 1970.
It's strange to me that for all his consummate language of the grotesque, Bacon was the most lighthanded and insubstantial painters of his own namesake. He seems only able to really invest in human flesh, I think the overt carcass in his work is a weaker symbol, almost too easy. Of all of them, Saville strikes me as cold, but Bacon as the least visceral. In fact, Chardin, for all his delicate 18th century domesticity, is appealingly, repugnantly meaty in comparison. Though I'm not sure anyone could ever outdo Soutine.
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