Distortion as a path to reality

Art and extinction with Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon’s art has been leaving audiences curious and revolted since his early success in the 1940s. But the ‘imagination material’, the complex and existential literature and philosophy that inspired his work has often been ignored from his biography. Ben Ware argues that the decay and extinction of his work bleeds into a philosophical view we have overlooked and which heightens his genius.

Encountering Francis Bacon’s art is a troubling experience. What are we to make of the mutilated faces, the bulging and contorted bodies, and the large fields of colour which enframe the figures? The paintings are clearly important – each exhibiting a certain sublime aura – but how should we read them?

Bacon is certainly not an ‘abstract’ painter, as some critics have argued. Indeed, Bacon himself hated abstraction, describing a room of Rothko’s at the Tate as ‘depressing’ and ‘the most dreary paintings that have ever been made’. He is, as he says in numerous interviews, a ‘figurative painter’. But at the same time, he clearly breaks with conventional figuration, elevating the figure to a new level of disconcerting prominence, depicting the human body in a permanent state of discomfort or agony.

The artist himself had much to say about the ideas behind his image-making. In his famous conversations with the critic David Sylvester, Bacon states that the aim of his works is to make a violent impact upon the spectator’s ‘nervous system’. Eliminating what he calls the ‘story-telling’ aspect of the image, the paintings seek to ‘unlock sensation’, to provoke a convulsive, existential shudder in those who encounter them.

___

The paintings seek to ‘unlock sensation’, to provoke a convulsive, existential shudder in those who encounter them.

___

Continue reading

Enjoy unlimited access to the world's leading thinkers.

Start by exploring our subscription options or joining our mailing list today.

Start Free Trial

Already a subscriber? Log in

Latest Releases
Join the conversation