Lee Stewart, Portrait of Pope Innocent X (Hell Interface)

Acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 in. 
60.96 x 91.44 cm.

"Francis Bacon is one of my favourite artists of all time. I especially like his interpretations of the Velazquez portrait of Pope Innocent X. I also like to combine high and low brow ideas. In this instance, I’m using one of Cenobites from the film Hellraiser (1987) as a substitute for the pope. The Cenobites are inter-dimensional beings who cannot distinguish pain from pleasure and travel through time and space looking for, what Georges Bataille would call, 'limit experiences’." -Lee Stewart