Portrait of a Strange Stroll [68] Francis Bacon: Portrait of a man walking down steps, 1972. Deleuze on Bacon, Painting Series

by Corry Shores
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Editions de la différence.

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

Portrait of a Strange Stroll

Francis Bacon: Portrait of a man walking down steps, 1972

Private Collection, London

(Thanks Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Painting 64 of Deleuze's Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures

Painting [68] of the English translation, and

Painting [] of the Seuil 2002 French

Bacon's Figures are often frozen in the middle of a strange stroll [68], as in Man Carrying a Child [22] or the Van Gogh [23]. (Deleuze 2003: 29b)

les Figures de Bacon sont souvent saisies dans le vif d'une étrange promenade [64]: «L'Homme portant un enfant » [65], ou le Van Gogh. (Deleuze 2002: 44bc)

[Bacon says that he paints different levels of sensation. Deleuze will explain this in terms of rhythm. First he considers other interpretations. One looks at how movement can be decomposed into frames. Consider Muybridge's decomposition of movements.

(Thanks www.univie.ac.at)

Sometimes painters overlay the different phases, to give the impression of motion. So one interpretation of the levels of sensation would be that each layer of motion would be a level. In this painting, however, the figure is frozen in the middle of its stroll, but without indication of other phases in its motion.

(Again, let me thank Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

As Deleuze later explains, Bacon's levels of sensation are really layers of rhythm in our sensations.]

[The armature] can consist in the action of a very particular section of the field that we have not yet considered: the field occasionally includes a black section, sometimes quite localized (Pope No. II, 1960 [27]; Three studies for a Crucifixion, 1962 [29];Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror, 1967 [45]; Triptych, 1972 [70];Portrait of a Man Walking down Steps, 1972 [68]), (Deleuze 2003: 104c)

[l'armature peut] consister dans l'action d'une section très particulière de l'aplat que nous n'avons pas encore considérée : en effet, il arrive que l'aplat comporte une section noire, tantôt bien localisée (« Pape n° 2 » 1960 [45], « Trios études pour une crucifixion » 1962, « Portrait de George Dyer regardant fixement dans une miroir»1967, « Triptyque » 1972, « Homme descendant l'escalier » 1972), (Deleuze 2002: 140c.d)

[Bacon's figures often seem like they are floating. We get the impression that they would fall if unsupported. Deleuze says that in Bacon's paintings, we find something that serves the same function as an armature in sculpture. In this case, the black rectangle is what seems to hold the figure in place.]

(Thanks once more 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 quite gratefully from:

http://www.univie.ac.at/cga/art/science.html

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