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The article discusses the paintings of the British figurative painter Francis Bacon as well as the artist himself. The article also comments on his methods of painting and the artist's response to criticism about his work, such as that it is overtly violent. The article concludes by announcing the exhibition "France Bacon: Five Decades," at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, New South Wales from November 17 2012 to February 24, 2013.

The author dreams of an ideal world, where a museum of artist Philip Guston would exist, in which a generous selection of Guston's paintings and drawings would be permanently on view. The author do not feel this way about every artist whose work he admires. The author feels a constant, almost physical hunger for Guston's paintings, particularly the late ones, and rejoice in each chance he have to see some of them. This need is so keen that even as he is immersed in looking at a Guston canvas, he find it impossible to forget that the opportunity is fleeting, that all too soon the show will close or the museum will rehang its collection, and he will once again be forced to live in a Guston-less world. Guston has been one of the main influences on American painting, both abstract and figurative in the last quarter century.

Expressive figurative painting is back again— full of energy and emotion. If one has missed this summer's Christophe Rukhäberle exhibition at LFL Gallery or if one liked it enough to see more, there's another opportunity this month at Marianne Boesky Gallery, just around the corner in Chelsea. Across Rukhäberle's paintings, East German bars are crowded with dancing women and guitar strumming men. Ruckhäberle also plants little homage's to masters of the 20th century in his paintings— a Lichtenstein pitcher with pop polka dots.