segunda-feira, 19 de janeiro de 2009
Interviews (5)
David Sylvester - When we were trying to fix a date to do this and we'd agreed on a day and a time, I said that I'd ring you that morning to see if you felt in the mood and you said you never felt in the mood, any more than you felt in the mood to paint before you actually started.
Francis Bacon - Well, it is very much like that. As you work, the mood grows on you. There are certain images which suddenly get hold of me and I really want to do them. But it's true to say that the excitement and the possibilities are in the working and obviously can only come in working.
DS - So you start painting every day, more or less? Not only on days when you feel a bit inspired to start?
FB - No. I don't really know what people mean by inspiration. Certainly, there are things called good runs, when you start and the thing seems to work for you and as you go along you seem to be able to be carried along by it. I don't know if that's what they mean by inspiration. Or is it a kind of pressure within to start doing something? I suppose there are different interpretations.
DS - Even if you get up feeling out of sorts and hung over, you'll still go on with the picture that you're doing?
FB - Yes, generally.
DS - And if you like the way it was at the end of yesterday and you feel that you might be in a disastrous state for working, will you still go on with the picture?
FB - Well, I often wish that I had a camera and just took the thing as it went along, because, certainly, very often in working one loses the best moments of a painting in trying to take it further. And, if one had a record of what it was, one might be able to find it again. So it would almost be nice to have a running camera going all the time that one was working.
David Sylvester in Interviews with Francis Bacon, 1975.
Francis Bacon - Well, it is very much like that. As you work, the mood grows on you. There are certain images which suddenly get hold of me and I really want to do them. But it's true to say that the excitement and the possibilities are in the working and obviously can only come in working.
DS - So you start painting every day, more or less? Not only on days when you feel a bit inspired to start?
FB - No. I don't really know what people mean by inspiration. Certainly, there are things called good runs, when you start and the thing seems to work for you and as you go along you seem to be able to be carried along by it. I don't know if that's what they mean by inspiration. Or is it a kind of pressure within to start doing something? I suppose there are different interpretations.
DS - Even if you get up feeling out of sorts and hung over, you'll still go on with the picture that you're doing?
FB - Yes, generally.
DS - And if you like the way it was at the end of yesterday and you feel that you might be in a disastrous state for working, will you still go on with the picture?
FB - Well, I often wish that I had a camera and just took the thing as it went along, because, certainly, very often in working one loses the best moments of a painting in trying to take it further. And, if one had a record of what it was, one might be able to find it again. So it would almost be nice to have a running camera going all the time that one was working.
David Sylvester in Interviews with Francis Bacon, 1975.
