Marking twenty years since the artist’s death, Francis Bacon: Five Decades provides a timely account of the life and work of this complex and conflicted artist, whose paintings retain their impact and relevance today.

As well as the sensual enjoyment of paint, Bacon’s work speaks of violence, from depictions of a screaming pope to crucifixions, animals and carcasses, ancient Greek figures and distorted, emotionally charged portraits of his close friends and lovers.

Essays by international scholars provide new insights into Bacon’s art and life, and some fifty art works from every decade of his career – from the pensive and shocking works of the 1940s to the exuberantly coloured and visceral large paintings of the 1970s and ’80s – show Bacon’s unique representations of the human body through his mastery of paint.

Over 150 additional illustrations portray his studio, friends and lovers, and reveal the diversity of his source materials, from Velázquez to the motion photos of Eadweard Muybridge.