I've always found Freud's painting of Francis Bacon intriguing and saw it as a cross-pollination of significance of these two painters. I wanted to portray it visually, echoing Bacon's techniques with my own visceral style, using the paint to enhance the vitality of the subject.
Antony Micallef
How it's made
For Portrait of Francis Bacon, printmakers at Make-Ready used experimental techniques to create one of their most textured prints to date.
The original artwork is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Urban & Contemporary Art (MUCA) in Munich
A digital recreation of the artwork's texture
When artworking the texture, the objective was to make the print imitate the thick brushstrokes of the original painting. To achieve the right colours, instead of creating layers with a mixture of coloured inks, we decided to build the texture using only white ink and varnish, then print colour on top. First, we printed the main texture raised to 1mm at the highest points, and then we printed an additional 0.5mm of texture in specific areas. Finally, we covered the figure with gloss varnish. The contrast between the background's satin finish and the figure’s gloss finish adds to the overall depth of the print.
Anastasia, Digital Print Technician
Capturing the essence of the materiality of my work was the main challenge when translating this painting into print. I wanted it to feel like an original piece of art in its own right. The textured finish, built up in layers, perfectly portrays the canyons and luscious contours from my original portrait.
Antony Micallef
