There probably isn’t too much that needs to be said about the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). He is one of the best-known artists in the world, and his name has long been synonymous with modern art.

Picasso was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, revolutionising the way we see and depict reality on canvas. To this day, his figures and portraits are instantly recognisable – even when they have little resemblance to reality.

Yet Picasso never allowed himself to be confined to a single style, continually reinventing himself as an artist. He painted, drew, sculpted, experimented with collage and ceramics, and left behind an enormous and extraordinarily diverse body of work.

Among his best-known works is Guernica (Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid), one of the most powerful anti-war paintings in modern art. There are also several museums dedicated exclusively to Picasso and his work, including those in Barcelona, Paris, Málaga and Münster.

Picasso was not simply a great artist – he helped shape what we understand modern art to be.

With Francis Bacon, things may look rather different. And as a Bacon fan, I’m delighted that this exhibition gives us the chance to change that, at least a little.

As a former member of staff at the Städel Museum, I first came across Bacon through “Study for the Nurse in the Film ‘Battleship Potemkin’”, 1957. The painting fascinated me immediately. And whenever I come across a Bacon during my many museum visits, I’m always delighted.

One of his most important works is probably Bacon’s study after Velázquez’s “Portrait of Pope Innocent X – the Screaming Pope”.

But who exactly was Bacon?

The Irish-British painter Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was one of the most important figurative painters of the 20th century. He became known for his deformed human bodies, often seated within tightly constructed, almost claustrophobic spaces. These figures, which so often seem to be screaming in despair – but somehow silently – are what make his work so distinctive.

His fascination with distorted human figures was very likely connected, at least in part, to the fact that he experienced both World Wars as a child. During this period, his family moved frequently, he had no regular schooling and was often left to his own devices. He therefore encountered violence at a very early age. When the Easter Rising of the Sinn Féin movement took place in 1916, Bacon was once again living in Ireland. He later recalled having lived in “a house barricaded with sandbags”.

But that was not the only thing that made his life complicated. His homosexuality, which he became aware of at the age of 16, was of course something that was not accepted at the time and was subject to punishment. In 1927, his father sent him to Berlin to work for a horse breeder. The man himself, however, moved in some rather questionable circles ;). Bacon threw himself into Berlin life before eventually moving on to Paris.

And it was in Paris that an important artistic encounter took place: he began drawing and painting in watercolour and discovered Picasso’s work, which impressed him enormously. He visited numerous exhibitions featuring works by Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico. And then Bacon knew what he wanted to do.

Today, his works fetch many millions at auction, making him one of the 25 most expensive artists in the world.