From the New York Times obituary of  Bacon, one of the most divisive artists ever: “Mr. Bacon first gained acclaim in 1945, when he exhibited ‘Three Studies for Figures at the Base of the Crucifixion‘ at the Lefevre Gallery in London. His angrily drawn image of writhing half-human, half-animal forms, perched atop pedestals and set in claustrophobic spaces, seemed to epitomize the grim spirit of postwar England and established the painter immediately as a master of the macabre. That reputation was to be reinforced time and again by the screaming popes, butchered carcasses and distorted portraits that Mr. Bacon turned out over the next four and a half decades.” (Thanks Live Leak.)

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