Francis Bacon (the ancient master of the moderns)

Francis Bacon is an autodidact. He learned to paint studying the ancient masters, whose techniques he master wonderfylly, and this is probably a his biggest strenght, since he is fully contemporary and yet he paints like an ancient.

Autodidact

Usually, self-taught painters can be detected easily; their painting, even when well conceived are naif. This can be seen even in geniuses: Cattelan, for instance, had no academic education in fine arts, and this is quite obvious for any not-casual observer. But there is at least an exception: Francis Bacon. Amazingly, he was an autodidact, but he painted like a Reinessance master.

Francis Bacon

The work of Francis Bacon represents the masochistic pleasture to be costrianed. Would it be just for this, it would be classified barely as "gay art", but constriction , pain, submisison, are a way to sense the flesh, to perceive the strenght of the body. In no other artist the flesh is so present, even in the dematerialized paintings of the popes, and, therefore, the soul.