Rhythmic Geometric [55] Triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969. Deleuze on Bacon, Painting Series

by Corry Shores
[Search Blog Here. Index-tags are found on the bottom of the left column.]

[Central Entry Directory]
[Deleuze Entry Directory]

[Entry collecting the images of the paintings.]

[Index of painting entries in the Deleuze on Bacon series].

[I am profoundly grateful to the sources of these images:

Editions de la différence

. Credits given at the end.]

[The following is quotation. My commentary is bracketed in red.]

Rhythmic Geometric

(Thanks

Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Francis Bacon

Triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969

Private Collection, Rome

Painting 19 of Deleuze's

Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures

Painting [55] of the English translation

and Painting [19] of the Seuil 2002 French

There are other techniques of isolation: putting the Figure inside a cube, or rather, inside a parallelepiped of glass or ice [6, 55] (Deleuze 1d)

Il y a d'autres procédés d'isolation : mettre la Figure dans un cube, ou plutôt dans un parallélépipède de verre ou de glace [29, 19] (Deleuze 11bc)

[Deleuze identifies different sorts of wrestling forces in Bacon's paintings. One type results when a figure is enclosed in some sort of shape. In this case, the figures are contained in a parallelepiped. Such enclosures isolate the figure. They also apply a force to the figure, all while the figure pushes back. This in-an-out exchange of forces Deleuze relates to the pumping of the heart muscle.]

(Again, thanks

Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Coupled figures have always been a part of Bacon's work, but they do not tell a story [60, 61, 66]. Moreover, there is a relationship of great intensity between the separate panels of a triptych, although this relationship has nothing narrative about it [55, 62, 38]. (Deleuze 2003: 2d)

Bacon n'a pas cessé de faire des Figures accouplées, qui ne racontent aucune histoire [1, 2, 53]. Bien plus les panneaux séparés d'un triptyque ont un rapport intense entre eux, quoique ce rapport n'ait rien de narratif [19, 3, 25](Deleuze 2002: 12d)

[In this triptych, no doubt the figures are related. Each one reminds us of the other. Yet if we were asked to tell a story that explains how they relate to each other, we would not be able to do so. Hence our brains cannot discern a logic behind their relations. But we still sense their similarities, so we feel forced to try to put them together somehow. This contracts their differences together without synthesizing them.]

(Again, thanks

Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Transl. Daniel W. Smith. London/New York: Continuum, 2003.

Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Paris: Seuil, 2002.

Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures. Paris: Editions de la différence [Littératures], 1981.

Images obtained gratefully from:

Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures. Paris: Editions de la différence [Littératures], 1981.