Francis Bacon?s work contains a strength and vitality that has led to his position as one of the greatest twentieth-century artists. The violent intensity with which his paintings give expression to the existential angst of his fellow human beings is virtually without parallel in the history of the art. Bacon?s work (1909- 1992) undoubtedly includes some of the most extraordinary and powerful paintings in modern art, reflecting the isolation and terror of the human condition, conveyed by the distortion of features and the nude body. This volume ?published to mark the hundredth anniversary of the artist?s birth and the upcoming exhibitions at the Tate Britain, London; the Prado Museum, Madrid; and the Metropolitan Museum, New York? comprises his series of portraits and self-portraits, the weirdly beautiful yet terrifying variations of Velázquez?s Pope Innocent X, the painfully moving Crucifixion, the enigmatic figure studies, and twelve gatefolds of the powerful triptychs. The 240 paintings were selected by the artist himself and he was closely involved with every aspect of their reproduction in this monograph.