Six degrees of Francis Bacon

The centenary of the birth of Francis Bacon is being celebrated at the Met until the middle of August. Meat, screaming popes, rough trade, the famous slatternly studio, and the agony of existentialism, all the usual stuff. Without god, Bacon seemed to believe, we are just howling animals in pain, and life is akin to a pile of dog shit on the sidewalk. Well, here at the Brooklyn Bachelor, as you might suppose, we beg to differ. To me existentialism is about taking responsibility (for the self within the community) in the void. Even in a shitstrom, you can still carry an umbrella, mate!

Anyway, while his later work was disappointing, I was quite taken with his variations on Valesquez’s portrait of the perversely named Innocent X especially with this 1953 mash-up with Einstein’s Potemkin nurse.
I don't know why, but I get a big kick out of the fact that this painting usually lives in Des Moines. The last time I was there, I helped bail out a fellow Bush the First protester from the local pokey.