Picasso – Bacon with Michael Peppiatt

In this episode of Lange Ohren, Felix von Boehm meets art historian, author and curator Michael Peppiatt in London. Peppiatt was a close friend of Francis Bacon for almost three decades. Taking the exhibition PICASSO – BACON as their starting point, they explore the fascination Pablo Picasso held for the young Bacon and how his admiration for a great artistic role model gave rise to a distinctive visual language of his own.
What does it feel like to be human? This question connects two artists who radically reimagined the human body. The conversation moves from Bacon’s encounter with Picasso’s drawings in Paris to images of desire, pain and vulnerability. Peppiatt reflects on Bacon’s search for his own voice, his inner contradictions and painting as a way of giving form to these tensions. What emerges is also an intimate portrait of a man whose warmth, generosity and humour might come as a surprise to those familiar only with the stark intensity of his paintings.