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DARK SECRETS: Francis bacon - The Real Truth

Quote of the Day by the Father of Empiricism Francis Bacon: 'If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end....'-English Renaissance philosopher's timeless warning about doubt, certainty and why true wisdom begins with questioning yourself

Francis Bacon challenged the notion that confidence equates to intelligence, asserting that true wisdom begins with doubt, not certainty. He argued that embracing uncertainty and continuous learning keeps the mind agile and prevents intellectual stagnation. This perspective remains relevant, emphasizing humility and the courage to admit not knowing everything as…

The Economic Times

Collection including masterpieces by Klimt and Schiele to fetch ‘up to £150m’ at auction

Collection comes from Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne, whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur

The Independent UK

Masterpieces by Klimt, Matisse and Freud set for London’s most valuable auction

Sotheby’s said collection of billionaire Spurs’ owner Joe Lewis and daughter Vivienne expected to fetch more than £150m in June sale

The Guardian - UK

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Euphoria, Francis Bacon and more: The best things to do, hear, see or watch in Europe this week

Zendaya returns for the third season of young adult drama Euphoria, while a fascinating new French exhibition studies Francis Bacon's later works. Here's what to keep an eye out for this week.

Euronews

Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime review – shipwrecked Ophelia points the path to freedom

This illuminating exhibition traces the British Guyanese artist’s faltering first steps of painting with a social conscience to his escape from London to New York and abstraction

The Guardian - UK

A tech billionaire’s lecture on the Antichrist has become one of the hottest tickets in Rome

Discussion of the Antichrist by a tech billionaire in the Vatican’s backyard has proven divisive

The Independent UK

Tracey Emin: A Second Life – Tate Modern’s must-see retrospective explores trauma and transcendence

The most powerful art speaks of and to the emotions. It tackles trauma and cathartically helps us to cope with it. It acknowledges pain, suffering and betrayal. It goes beyond an aestheticised veneer to raw emotion. It seeks to touch not just the eyes, but the soul.

The Conversation

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London Art Fair 2026: Plenty of art, but none of the fun of the fair

2/5 The prices are genuinely affordable, but the promotional crowing about Francis Bacon is almost comic

Evening Standard

Molly Parkin obituary: Artist, writer, fashion editor and Swinging Sixties icon dies aged 93

Known for her flamboyant dress sense, foul-mouthed charm and string of famous lovers, the fashion editor, author, artist and self-described ‘astral twin’ of Elizabeth Taylor lived a dazzling life of creativity and hedonism

The Independent UK

5 things to know about Daphne Oram, the visionary pioneer in electronic music

Daphne Oram (1925–2003) was one of Britain’s most important early electronic composers. Oram trained first as a pianist and composer and turned down a place at the Royal College of Music to work at the BBC, where late-night tape experiments and hands-on work with microphones and oscillators drew her from…

The Conversation

Turner v Constable: Tate Britain exhibition invokes long history of artistic rivalries

From Michelangelo and Leonardo to Picasso and Matisse, bitter feuds have defined art. But are contemporary artists more collaborative than their renaissance predecessors?

The Guardian - UK

Maggi Hambling and Sarah Lucas: Ooo La La review – from the sublime to the ridiculous

The two artists, friends, are paired in this joint show that juxtaposes Lucas’s precise and witty sculptures with Hambling’s semi-abstract dollops

The Guardian - UK

Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies at Somerset House: 'The future of bodies in an AI world'

4/5 A staggering exhibition at Somerset House where choreographer Wayne McGregor explores the future of bodies in an AI world

Evening Standard

The painting that haunts me – seven experts share their favourite scary artwork

With Halloween approaching, we asked seven of our academic experts to tell us about the most unsettling artwork they’ve ever encountered. From gruesome portraits to creepy critters, these are the paintings that have stayed with them long after their first glimpse.

The Conversation

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The Guardian - UK

WH Auden formed ‘intense friendship’ with sex worker who burgled him, unseen letters reveal

Exclusive: The newly released correspondence reveals how a strong bond developed between the Funeral Blues poet and the sex worker who broke into his home

The Guardian - US

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

The Guardian - UK

The Two Roberts by Damian Barr review – lost story of a gay art duo

The lives of Scottish artists Bobby MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, who found love and fame and lost it all, are vividly reimagined

The Guardian - UK

‘They had everything, then nothing’: the prodigies the art world forgot

Robert Colquhoun and Bobby MacBryde were once the golden boys of London’s art scene – photographed in Vogue, filmed by Ken Russell and lauded by Francis Bacon. So why did they vanish into obscurity?

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The Conversation

Francis Bacon’s Essays explore the darker side of human nature. 400 years on, they still instruct and unnerve

In our guides to the classics, experts explain key literary works.

The Guardian - UK

Gameshows, Cliff Richard and Stalin’s most hated play: the British culture sent behind the iron curtain

A thaw in relations during the Cold War led to some surprising collaborations between the two nations, involving everyone from Laurence Olivier and Rudolf Nureyev to Gilbert and George. As relations ice over again, what can we learn from this artistic detente?

The Guardian - UK

Sir Brian Clarke obituary

Pop-influenced artist whose stained-glass creations adorned churches, mosques, airports and offices around the world

Evening Standard

Jenny Saville at the National Portrait Gallery: 'mythic art of the flesh'

5/5 Jenny Saville’s huge new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery shows her as a student of the Old Masters and 20th Century abstract artists, but with a visceral magic all of her own that feels utterly timely

The Guardian - UK

I have seen the light and it’s Tracey Emin’s Jesus – RA Summer Exhibition review

With an extraordinary painting by Emin, great works by Cindy Sherman, Cornelia Parker and Sean Scully, assisted by some perving from Allen Jones, this annual jamboree has returned to relevance

The Conversation

Damien Hirst at 60: a genius who never stops stretching our understanding of art and life – or a tired trickster ruined by his riches?

“I’m an artist, I have no idea about money.”

The Guardian - UK

Phallic symbols, bare buttocks and warrior poses: how physique magazines grew a cult gay following

Masquerading as health and fitness publications, these journals contained photographs of finely muscled, nearly naked men that were beautifully lit and classically posed. Now a gorgeous new book is celebrating these ‘museum-worthy’ images

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