Diagrams on the Grass [17] Two Figures in the Grass, 1954 Francis Bacon. 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 source of this image:

Editions de la différence

Credits given at the end.]

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

Diagrams on the Grass

(Thanks

Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Francis Bacon

Two Figures in the Grass, 1954

Private Collection, Paris

Painting 2 of Deleuze's

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

Painting [17] of the English translation

and Painting [17] of the Seuil 2002 French

What fills the rest of the painting will be neither a landscape as the correlate of the Figure, nor a ground from which the form will emerge, nor a formless chiaroscuro, a thickness of color on which shadows would play, a texture on which variation would play. Yet we are moving ahead too quickly. For there are indeed, in Bacon's early works, landscape-Figures like the Van Gogh of 1957 [23]; there are extremely shaded textures, as in Figure in a Landscape (1945) [2] and Figure Study I (1945-6) [4]; there are thicknesses and densities like those of Head II (1949) [5] (Deleuze, 2003: 3b.c) [...] But destiny can sometimes pass through detours that seem to contradict it. For Bacon's landscapes are a preparation for what will later appear as a set of short "involuntary free marks" lining the canvas, asignifying traits that are devoid of any illustrative or narrative function: hence the importance of the grass, and the irremediably grassy character of these landscapes (Landscape, 1952 [8];Study of a Figure in a landscape, 1952 [9]; Study of a Baboon, 1953 [14]; Two Figures in the Grass, 1954 [17]). (Deleuze 2003: 3c.d)

Ce qui remplit le reste du tableau, ce ne sera pas un paysage comme corrélat de la figure, ni un fond dont surgirait la forme, ni un informel, clair-obscur, épaisseur de la couleur où se joueraient les ombres, texture où se jouerait la variation. Nous allons trop vite pourtant. Il y a bien, ou début de l'oeuvre, des Figures-paysages comme leVan Gogh de 1957 ; il y a des textures extrêmement nuancées, comme « Figure dans un Paysage » ou « Figure étude I », de 1945 ; il y a des épaisseurs et densités comme la « Tête II » de 1949; [...] Mais il n'est pas exclu que ce qui est destin passe par des détours qui semblent le contredire. Car les paysages de Bacon sont la préparation de ce qui apparaîtra plus tard comme un ensemble des courtes « marques libres involontaires » rayant la toile, traits asignifiants dénués de fonction illustrative ou narrative : d'où l'importance de l'herbe, le caractère irrémédiablement herbu de ces paysages (« Paysage » 1952, « Étude de figure dans un paysage » 1952, « Étude de babouin » 1953, ou « Deux figures dans l'herbe » 1954). (Deleuze 2002: 13-14)

[In Bacon's later paintings, there is often a blank single-colored field as the background. It does not blend into the figures. Nonetheless, they in a way seem side-by-side. Yet in many early paintings, such as this one, there is sometimes a landscape-like ground that blends-into the figures.

(Again, thanks

Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

But also in the later paintings, Bacon will use irrational, asignifying markings to scramble the formations and narrative logic of the paintings. We see the precursors in the markings making-up the grass.]

(Again, thanks

Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Such is the case here, where the coupling of sensations from different levels creates the coupled Figure (and not the reverse). What is painted is the sensation. There is a beauty to these entangled Figures [69]. They do not merge with each other, but are rendered indiscernible by the extreme precision of the lines, which acquire a kind of autonomy in relation to the body, like a diagram whose lines would bring together nothing but sensation. [footnote 1] There is one Figure common to two bodies, or one "fact" common to two Figures, without the slightest story being narrated [12, 17,60,61]. (Deleuze 2003: 46-47)

C'est bien le cas ici, où l'accouplement des sensations à niveaux différents fait la Figure accouplée (et non; l'inverse). Ce qui est peint, c'est la sensation. Beauté de ces Figures mêlées [76]. Elles ne sont pas confondues, mais rendues indiscernables par l'extrême précision des lignes qui acquièrent une sorte d'autonomie par rapport aux corps : comme dans un diagramme dont les lignes n'uniraient que des sensations [note 59]. Il y a une Figure commune des deux corps, ou un « fait » commun des deux Figures, sans la moindre histoire à raconter [41, 17, 14 [[sic: 1]], 2]. (Deleuze 2002: 65-66)

[Each figure gives us its own sensation. Then Bacon mangles the figures together, coupling them. But the two figures remain double. So we feel the sensations from each figure at the same time. And these coupled sensations resonate by communicating each other's differences.]

(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.

Image obtained gratefully from:

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