Böcker av Michael Peppiatt

A major study of Francis Bacon's paintings of animals reveals his explorations of the human condition

THE TIMES AND WATERSTONES BEST ART BOOK OF 2023'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful . . . reads like a novel by Samuel Beckett' Paul Theroux A portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors from one of our most eminent art historiansToday the work of Alberto Giacometti is world-famous and his sculptures sell for record-breaking prices. But from his early days as an unknown outsider to the end of a dramatic international career, Giacometti lived in the same hovel of a studio in Paris. It was Paris that made him, and he in turn immortalised the city through his art.Arriving in Paris from the Swiss Alps in 1922, Giacometti was shaped not only by his relationships with remarkable artists and writers - from Picasso, Breton and Dalí to Sartre, Beauvoir and Beckett - but by the everyday life, pre-war and post-war, of Paris itself. His distinctive figures emerged from the city's unique atmosphere: the crumbling grey stone of its humbler streets and the café-terraces buzzing with radical ideas and racy gossip.In Giacometti in Paris, Michael Peppiatt, who spent thirty years documenting the Parisian art world and mixing with many of the people Giacometti knew, brilliantly charts the course of the artist's life and work. From falling in and out with the Surrealists to years of artistic anguish, from devotion to his mother to intense friendships, tragic love affairs and a fraught marriage, this is an intimate portrait of an outstanding artist in exceptional times.

A new selection of letters, statements, and interviews reveals the preoccupations, thoughts, and ideas of Francis Bacon, one of the twentieth century's most influential and important artists.

'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful' Paul TherouxA portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors from one of our most eminent art historiansToday the work of Alberto Giacometti is world-famous and his sculptures sell for record-breaking prices. But from his early days as an unknown outsider to the end of a dramatic international career, Giacometti lived in the same hovel of a studio in Paris. It was Paris that made him, and he in turn immortalised a certain Paris through his art.Arriving from the Swiss Alps in 1922, Giacometti was shaped not only by his relationships with remarkable artists and writers - from Picasso, Breton and Dalí to Sartre, Beauvoir and Beckett - but by the everyday life, pre-war and post-war, of Paris itself. His distinctive figures emerged from the city's unique atmosphere: the crumbling grey stone of its humbler streets and the café-terraces buzzing with radical ideas and racy gossip.In Giacometti in Paris, Michael Peppiatt, who spent thirty years documenting the Paris art world and mixing with many of the people Giacometti knew, brilliantly charts the course of the artist's life and work. From falling in and out with the Surrealists to years of artistic anguish, from devotion to his mother to intense friendships, tragic love affairs and a fraught marriage, this is an intimate portrait of an outstanding artist in exceptional times.

Michael Peppiatt, a major art critic and close friend of Francis Bacon's, offers an entertaining and uniquely well-informed portrait of this complex artist.

A new collection of key texts from a leading critic of modern art

'In Giacomettis Atelier' richtet unseren Blick auf einen der wohl einflussreichsten Orte in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, nämlich in jenes winzige, marode Atelier, in dem der große Bildhauer hinter dem Montparnasse von 1926 bis zu seinem Tod lebte und arbeitete. Für fast 40 Jahre war dieser chaotische, aber höchst kreative Ort das Zentrum von Alberto Giacomettis Welt. Sein Atelier war der Magnet für eine ganze Generation von Künstlern und Schriftstellern in Paris, von Picasso und Braque über Breton und Sartre bis zu Genet und Beckett. Michael Peppiatt ist ein intimer Kenner von Leben und Werk Alberto Giacomettis. Zunächst arbeitete der Autor in London als Kunstkritiker beim Observer, bis er Ende der sechziger Jahre nach Paris zog, um für Le Monde über Kunst und als Korrespondent für die New York Times und die Financial Times zu schreiben.

Published in 1996, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma was the first in-depth study of the artist's life. It has not been superseded.In this substantially revised, updated edition - to coincide with the artist's centenary, which will be celebrated from autumn 2008 through summer 2009 - Peppiatt will incorporate confidential material Bacon gave him, which he did not include in the first edition. This valuable, first-hand information comes from the hundreds of conversations Bacon had with Peppiatt, often late into the night, over thirty years, particularly during the periods Bacon spent living and working in Paris. It includes insights into Bacon's intimate relationships, his artistic convictions and his general view of life, as well as his acerbic comments on his contemporaries.Peppiatt will draw on some of the fascinating information that has become available in the fifteen years since the artist died. Once jealously guarded by the artist himself, the contents of Bacon's studio can now be freely consulted; Peppiatt has had privileged access to these archives, and he will show how a number of recent discoveries - including wholly unexpected source material - have radically changed the way we look at Bacon's work. Similarly, his recent research into the artist's background - his tortured affair with the sadistic Peter Lacy in Tangier, for instance, and the baffling circumstances of his death in Madrid - will shed light on unexplored areas of Bacon's life and work. Peppiatt will also unveil new information from several people who knew Bacon intimately and who have never gone on record previously.