Bacon and the Mind Art, Neuroscience and Psychology - Thames & Hudson

Bacon and the Mind sheds light on the art of Francis Bacon, exploring his motivations and opening new ways to understand his paintings through three pillars; art, neuroscience, and psychology.

This beautiful book consists of five essays illustrated with colors throughout Francis Bacon's oeuvre. It is the first in a completely new series of Francis Bacon Studies books, aiming to illuminate the art and motivations of Francis Bacon.

Christopher Bucklow's first essay convincingly argues that Bacon does not depict the reality of his subjects, but rather their reality for him — in his memory, sensitivity, and private world of impressions and ideas.

Steven Jaron's essay questions the psychological implications of Bacon's habitual language, his obsession with “wounds,” sensitivity, and nervous system. The deconstruction of Bacon's visual imagination results in insights into the human and his work.

Darrian Leader's long-standing fascination with Bacon's paintings precedes his powerful BBC documentary, In the Name of the Father? (1996). His contribution to this book offers his latest fresh and stimulating perspective on the artist.

John Onians's contribution focuses on the influence of unconscious mental processes on Bacon's creation of his images.

“Francis Bacon's Visual Shock: An Essay from Neuroaesthetics” is a newly edited and fully illustrated re-presentation of the article by Semir Zeki and Tomohiro Ishizu, previously available only online.

Martin Harrison, editor of Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, edits the book and co-writes the Foreword and Afterword.

The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, supported by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation Monaco, in collaboration with Thames & Hudson.

Thames & Hudson was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. Their greatest passion and mission was to create a “museum without walls” and to make the world of art and leading scientific research accessible to a broad public. To reflect international perspectives, the company's name combined the rivers flowing through London and New York, represented in its logo by two dolphins symbolizing friendship and intelligence, one facing east, the other west, suggesting a connection between the Old World and the New.

Today, still an independent family company, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2000 titles in print. It publishes high-quality books across all areas of visual creativity: fine arts, applied arts, decorative arts, performing arts, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and music, as well as archaeology, history, and popular culture. It also develops a list of children's books. Headquartered in London with a sister company in New York and branches in Melbourne, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In Paris, another subsidiary, Interart, distributes English-language books in France.

History of Thames & Hudson

Walter Neurath was born in Vienna in 1903. In 1938, he left his hometown — where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books — for London. Initially, he worked as a production director at Adprint, a company founded by Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges developed a pioneering concept now known as book packaging (or co-publishing), where ideas for books are developed, commissioned, produced, and sold to publishers operating in different markets and languages, to create large editions and reduce unit production costs. Neurath's concept was the first of many innovations that Thames & Hudson introduced to the publishing world.

Seeking to continue book packaging in a second edition and recognizing the need to amortize the high costs of producing illustrated books, Neurath founded his own publishing house, with offices in London and New York, in autumn 1949. Eva Neurath, who arrived in London from Berlin in 1939, was a co-founder.

Of the ten titles published on Thames & Hudson's first list in 1950, *English Cathedrals*, with photographs by Martin Hürlimann, was the first and most successful. The company's strong conviction from the very beginning in the durability of books remained in print until 1971. In the first year of publication, Albert Einstein's *Out of My Later Years* also appeared, an early indicator of the program's breadth. As the list gradually expanded successfully—from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in 1955—the company moved its offices to High Holborn and in 1956 relocated to a Georgian townhouse at 30 Bloomsbury Street, near Bedford Square, which became the epicenter of book publishing in London. The manufacturing remained at this address, eventually expanding to five houses by 1999, when it returned to High Holborn.

In 1958, Thames & Hudson launched one of the most renowned series, *World of Art*, which became the foundation of a highly diverse list. Characterized by pocket-sized format and black spines, the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. Nearly 60 years later, the series boasts over 300 titles, which, according to Christopher Frayling, are “stained with paint copies” in every art school across the country.

Other significant series that added depth and prestige to the list include *Ancient People and Places*, edited by Glyn Daniel, which since the 1950s has contributed to pioneering interest in archaeology, both in book form and television. Over 34 titles have been published in this series over 34 years. The large-format *Great Civilizations* series, published in 1961, featured contributions from esteemed scholars such as Alan Bullock, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A. J. P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich.
After establishing one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in less than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63. Sculptor Henry Moore wrote that “his death was a loss to our cultural life.” Sir Herbert Read noted that Neurath “more than anyone else was responsible for the revolution in art publishing” and was “one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combine business acumen with idealism.” Eva Neurath became chairwoman. Walter’s son, Thomas, who joined the company in 1961 with his sister Constance, became managing director; Constance later served as artistic director for several decades. Both Thomas and Constance remain on the Thames & Hudson board, as do Thomas’s daughters, Johanna and Susanna.
From producing the first commercial edition of *The Book of Kells* to the triumphant publication of the six-volume *Vincent van Gogh - Letters*, from technical innovations like “French folds” to the controversial documentation of graffiti art in *Subway Art*, Thames & Hudson has always been at the forefront, both culturally and in production techniques.

The year 2016 marked an extraordinary new chapter for the company, announcing publishing partnerships with two of the world’s most important museums: the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Thus, the world of art and scholarship remains at the heart of Thames & Hudson’s publishing program, which remains true to its fundamental principle: providing a “museum without walls.”
Today, Thames & Hudson is a recognizable international brand, a symbol of British publishing. Its catalog includes thousands of incredible book titles, many of which are prestigious collector’s editions.