A look at “Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective” at the Metropolitan Museum

He could light up the day with his wit and generosity; he could equally well plunge it into gloom; and part of the excitement of being with him lay in not knowing for long which way it would go. It was fascinating to watch such sudden changes and contradictions within one person…Bacon could not be pinned down. The closer you got to him, the more likely he was to turn nasty or simply disappear — to go through a wall into a life where you could not follow.

– Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma