Each work attempts to recreate the human condition in paint. This was dead serious shit, and it wasn’t pretty. But in increased awareness of reality is beauty, as in to understand nature more deeply is to have a more beautiful understanding. The ugliness in his canvases was a device to release beauty. The images are attempts to wake us up. Reality in them isn’t imitated, but evoked. For these reasons, for years to come, Bacon became not only my favorite living artist, but also the most influential. Among living artists only Bacon combined original imagery and an original style in a way that I found truly compelling, and up to date.