Triptych, May–June 1973 is a triptych completed in 1973 by the Irish-born artist Francis Bacon. The oil-on-canvas work was painted in memory of Bacon's lover George Dyer, who committed suicide on the eve of the artist's retrospective at Paris's Grand Palais in October 1971. The triptych is a portrait of the moments before Dyer's death. Bacon was preoccupied by Dyer's suicide in his last twenty years, during which time he painted a number of similarly themed works. He admitted to friends that he never fully recovered from the event, and described painting the triptych as an exorcism of his feelings of loss and guilt. The work is stylistically more static and monumental than Bacon's earlier triptychs. It has been described as one of his "supreme achievements", and is generally viewed as his most intense and tragic canvas. Of the three "Black Triptychs" that Bacon created to confront Dyer's death, Triptych, May–June 1973 is generally regarded as the most accomplished. In 2006, The Daily Telegraph's art critic Sarah Crompton wrote that "emotion seeps into each panel of this giant canvas…the sheer power and control of Bacon's brushwork take the breath away". In 1989, the work sold at Sotheby's for US$6,270,000, the highest price then paid for a Bacon work.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych%2C_May%E2%80%93June_1973

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1619:

Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_van_Oldenbarnevelt

1846:

The United States declared war on Mexico after a series of disputes in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, starting the Mexican–American War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_War

1888:

Isabel the Redeemer , heiress of Brazil, signed the Lei Áurea into law, formally abolishing slavery in Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel%2C_Princess_Imperial_of_Brazil

1917:

Our Lady of Fatima: Ten-year-old Lúcia Santos and her siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian apparition near Fátima, Portugal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Fatima

1958:

Algerian War: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers, demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1958_crisis

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

augur (v): To foretell events; to exhibit signs of future events http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/augur

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Death and Light are everywhere, always, and they begin, end, strive, attend, into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world, burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty. --Roger Zelazny http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny