Bacon’s Triptych, Three Studies of the Human Head, 1953, in Deleuze’s Francis Bacon commentary

 

by Corry Shores

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artimage.org.uk

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[The following is quotation. My commentary is in brackets.]

 

 

Francis Bacon

 

Triptych, Three Studies of the Human Head, 1953

 

(Thanks source: artimage.org.uk)

 

Painting 60 of Deleuze’s
Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures
Painting [13] of the English translation
and Painting [60] of the Seuil 2002 French

 

 

From the text:

Et si l’on rêve d’introduire un ordre dans un triptyque, nous croyons que celui de 1953 impose cet ordre qui ne se confond pas avec la succession des panneaux : la bouche qui crie au centre, le sourire hystérique à gauche, et à droite enfin la tête qui s’incline et se dissipe. [60]

(Deleuze 1981a: 24a; 2002: 34b)

 

And if one dreams of introducing an order into a triptych, I believe that the 1953 triptych [13] imposes the following order, which is not to be confused with the succession of panels: the screaming mouth in the center, the hysterical smile on the left, and finally, the inclined and dissipated head on the right.

(Deleuze 2003a: 26b; 2003b: 28d; 2005: 21b)

 

Commentary:

[Deleuze notes how generally there are no narrative relations between the Figures in Bacon’s paintings. This means also there would probably be no ordering relations between Figures displayed in separate panels. However, Deleuze says that were there to be some exception, it could be this triptych, because the panels’ successive states can be seen as displaying the stages of the self-escape of the Figure’s body. {1} First it begins its escape through the mouth through the scream. {2} Then it begins it dissipation, evidenced by the disjunction between the hysterical smile and and the tensed body (see the first quotation in painting 11.) {3} The body is now dissipating, with the face losing all form and the body slumping as it dissipates. When we pass from left to right, we might even hear a sort of melodic drop as we go from panel to panel.

(Thanks source: artimage.org.uk)

Note: the text says that the screaming mouth is in the center panel and that the hysterical smile is the left panel. In the French painting edition, they are in fact displayed in this order:

(Deleuze 1981b: painting 60)

]

 

 

From the text:

L’hystérique, c’est á la fois celui qui impose sa présence, mais aussi celui pour qui les choses et les êtres sont présents, trop présents, et qui donne á toute chose et communique á tout être cet excès de présence. [...] Bacon peut dire avec humour que le sourire hystérique qu’il peint sur le portrait de 1953, sur la tête humaine de 1953, sur le pape de 1955, vient du « modèle » qui était « très nerveux, presque hystérique ». Mais c’est tout le tableau qui est hystérisé.

(Deleuze 1981a: 36c; 2002: 52c)

 

The hysteric is at the same time someone who imposes his or her presence, but also someone for whom things and beings are present, too present, and who attributes to every thing and communicates to every being this excessive presence. [...] Bacon explains rather testily that the hysterical smile he painted on the || 1953 portrait [11], on the human head of 1953 [13] , and on the 1955 Pope [19] came from a “model” who was  very neurotic and almost hysterical.” But in fact it is the whole painting that is hystericized.

(Deleuze 2003a: 63b; 2003b: 75d; 2005: 36c)

 

Commentary:

[When an image represents a situation, we might say that the image provides itself in its presence, and the represented element is given indirectly through the representation. Processing images representationally is something more or less cognitive and cerebral. Bacon’s paintings avoid representation while still providing intense sensations, and thus we are not distracted by the cognitive elements and instead are left with the raw presences of the image and its sensations. And we might also note that when we experience an overwhelming sensory experience, it attests both to the presence of those sensations as well as to the presence of whatever may be causing them, including the “forces” that are at work in imposing themselves upon our sensory apparatus. And given how overwhelming the sensations are, it attests to the excessiveness of this presence that has such a disruptive effect on our body’s workings. The Figures in Bacon’s paintings can be said to both themselves experience and express this excessive presence as well as causing us to have an overwhelming sensory experience, and thus they communicate that excessive presence to us. We might also find that in such experiences of sensory overload, our bodies begin to undergo confusions of many physical sorts, like certain components of the sensation being at odds with others. We may for example want to look away from the image in disgust while at the same time being drawn to it with rapt and eager curiosity. While under this mode of experience, we could perhaps notice certain traits of hysteria, coming especially from the lack of control of all the influences, tensions, sensations, and so on wrestling throughout our body. Deleuze’s point in these passages is that the hysteria of these Figures is something found not just in the smiles but throughout their bodies and in fact throughout the rest of the painting. For, the other elements in the painting are involved in the play of forces that give rise the Figure’s hystericized body and smile.]

 

 

From the text:

 

Dans les triptyques, c’est donc sur l’horizontale qu’on cherchera le rythme- | témoin à valeur constante. Cette horizontale peut présenter plusieurs Figures. D’abord, celle du plat sourire hystérique : non seulement comme nous l’avons vu, pour le triptyque de tête de 1953 (panneau gauche), mais déjà pour le triptyque des monstres de 1944 (panneau central), où la tête aux yeux bandés n’est pas du tout une tête qui s’apprête à mordre, mais une tête abominable qui sourit, suivant une déformation horizontale de la bouche. [60] [80]

(Deleuze 1981a: 51-52; 2002: 74b)

 

In the triptychs, it is thus on the horizontal that we must seek the attendant-rhythm with a constant value. This horizontal can be presented in several Figures. First, there is the flat hysterical smile, which appears not only, as we have seen, in the 1953 triptych of the head (left panel [13]), but already in the 1944 triptych of monsters (central panel) [1], where the head with the bandaged eyes is not a head preparing to die, but an abominable head that smiles along the horizontal deformation of the mouth.

(Deleuze 2003a: 44b; 2003b: 75; 2005: 54b)

 

Commentary:

[Deleuze identifies three rhythmic tendencies or “figures” in Bacon’s triptychs. We might think of these rhythmic figures as being tendencies or forces of variation impressing themselves into the viewing experience, with all these figures being what they are individually on account of their relation to the other forces. There is an active rhythm, which acts upon or against a passive rhythm, which is the recipient, patient, or simply the opposite in a ‘losing’ way of the active tendencies. So if the Figure in one panel implies a force or motion that is rising, then the passive rhythm will be found in another Figure implying a downward force or motion. There is always a third rhythmic figure, which is like a baseline against which the other-two are oriented. So if one Figure has a rising motion, and another a falling motion, then the third will have a horizontal motion (or a horizontal stability), since that would be the neutral stance between rising and falling. Often times there is a horizontal smile in Bacon’s Figures which serve this attendant rhythmic function, and we see it here in the center panel.

(Thanks source: artimage.org.uk)

Note: as mentioned above, the text says the smile is in the left panel, which is how it is ordered in the Paintings volume.]

 

 

From the text:

 

On comprend du coup que les triptyques aient besoin de cette vivacité lumineuse ou colorée, et se concilient rarement avec un traitement « malerisch » global : le triptyque de tête de 1953 serait une de ces rares exceptions. [60]

(Deleuze 1981a: 55d; 2002: 80c)

 

We at once realize that the triptychs have need of this luminous or colored vivacity, and are rarely susceptible to a global “malerisch” treatment; the 1953 triptych of the head [13] would be one of the rare exceptions.

(Deleuze 2003a: 44b; 2003b: 84ab; 2005: 59c. Note: in 2003a, there are no quotation marks around malerisch.)

 

Commentary:

[The malerisch style was described previously in this way: “We see everywhere the reign of the blurry [flou] and the indeterminate, the action of a depth that pulls at the form, a thickness on which shadows play, | a dark nuanced texture, effects of compression and elongation - In short, a malerisch treatment, as Sylvester suggests” (Deleuze 2003a: 26|27; 2003b: 29c; 2005: 21d). In the triptychs, there is a coupling of Figures across panels. Often in the triptychs, this coupling is in part somehow effected by violently projecting the figures onto a uniform color field. (Perhaps the uniformity of the color field prevents there from being too much discernible visual givens standing between the spatially separated Figures, thereby compelling us to couple them, and perhaps the vibrancy of the colors makes the Figures stand out more distinctly, intensifying their coupling.) But there is an exception to this pattern, namely the triptych in question. The Figures here are sort of blurred into an uncolored background.]

 

 

 

 

Texts:

 

Deleuze, Gilles. 1981a. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome I. Paris: Éditions de la différence.

Deleuze, Gilles. 1981b. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures. Paris: Éditions de la différence.

 

Deleuze, Gilles. 2002. Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Paris: Éditions du seuil.

 

 

Deleuze, Gilles. 2003a. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation [with translator’s introduction (Smith’s “Deleuze on Bacon: Three Conceptual Trajectories in The Logic of Sensation”) and author’s introduction to the English edition]. Translated by Daniel W. Smith. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis.

 

 

Deleuze, Gilles. 2003b. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation [with translator’s preface, preface to the fourth edition by Alain Badiou and Barbara Cassin, author’s foreword, and author’s preface to the English edition]. Translated by Daniel W. Smith. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis.

 

 

Deleuze, Gilles. 2005. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation [with translator’s preface, preface to the fourth edition by Alain Badiou and Barbara Cassin, author’s foreword, and author’s preface to the English edition]. Translated by Daniel W. Smith. London/ New York: Continuum.

 

 

 

 

Images obtained gratefully from:

https://www.artimage.org.uk/4598/francis-bacon/three-studies-of-the-human-head--1953

 

.

Potty-Mouth Translations [73] Francis Bacon: Triptych, 1973. 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]
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[Entry collecting the Images of the Paintings]

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[May I thank the sources of these images:

Editions de la différence.

Credits found at the end.]

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

Potty-Mouth Translations

Francis Bacon: Triptych, 1973

Saul Sternberg Collection, New York

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

Painting 29 of Deleuze's Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation. Tome II - Peintures

Painting [73] of the English translation, and

Painting [6] of the Seuil 2002 French

The entire series of spasms in Bacon is of this type: scenes of love, of vomiting and excreting [73], in which the body attempts to escape from itself through one of its organs in order to rejoin the field or material structure. (Deleuze 2003: 12ab)

Toute la série des spasmes chez Bacon est de ce type, amour, vomissement, excrément, toujours le corps qui tente de s'échapper par un de ses organes, pour rejoindre l'aplat, la structure matérielle [6]. (Deleuze 2002: 24a)

[Bacon's figures are often constrained by some enclosure. It applies pressure to the figure. Imagine squeezing a water-balloon. The water is forced outward and might escape through a break in the surface. In these paintings, the figure's insides escape through their bodily openings.]

(Let me again thank Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Sometimes an animal, for example a real dog, is treated as the shadow of its master [52], or conversely, the man's shadow itself assumes an autonomous and indeterminate animal existence [73] (Deleuze 2003: 16a)

Il arrive qu'un animal, par exemple un chien réel, soit traité comme l'ombre de son maître [32]; ou inversement que l'ombre de l'homme prenne une existence animale autonome et indéterminée [6]. (Deleuze 2002: 28a)

[These forces acting on the figures' bodies cause them to deform and take on animal traits. In this case, the shadow escapes from the body in an animal-like form. Perhaps this shadow reminds us of a bat.]

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

But in the end, it is a movement "in place," a spasm, which reveals a completely different problem characteristic of Bacon: the action of invisible forces on the body (hence the bodily deformation, which are due to this more profound cause). In the 1973 triptych [73], the movement of translation occurs between two spasms, between the two movements of a contraction in one place. (Deleuze 2003: 30a)

Mais à la limite, c'est un mouvement sur place, un spasme, qui témoigne d'un tout autre problème propre à Bacon : l'action sur le corps de forces invisibles (d'où les déformations du corps qui sont dues à cette cause plus profonde). Dans le triptyque de 1973, le mouvement de translation est entre deux spasmes, entre deux mouvements de contraction sur place. (Deleuze 2002: 45c).

The horizontal can also be executed in a movement of translation, as in the 1973 triptych [73]: a horizontal translation in the center panel makes us move from the spasm on the right to the spasm on the left (here again we see that the order of succession, when there is one, does not necessarily go from left to right). (Deleuze 2003: 54c)

L'horizontale peut aussi être effectuée suivant un mouvement de translation, comme dans le triptyque de 1973 : une translation horizontale, au centre, nous fait passer du spasme de droite au spasme de gauche (là encore on voit que l'ordre de succession, quand il y en a un, ne va pas nécessairement de gauche à droite). (Deleuze 2002: 75bc)

The rising-descending, contraction-dilation, and systolic-diastolic oppositions cannot be identified with each other. A discharge, for example, is indeed a descent, as well as a dilation and expansion, but there is also a contraction in the discharge, as in the man at the washbasin [80] and the man on the toilet in the 1973 triptych [73]. (Deleuze 2003: 57a)

En effet, on ne peut pas identifier montée-descente et contraction-dilation, systole-diastole : par exemple l'écoulement est bien une descente, et aussi une dilation et expansion, mais il y a de la contraction dans l'écoulement, comme chez l'homme au lavabo et l'homme au bidet du tri triptyque de 1973. (Deleuze 2002: 77bc)

[The forces acting upon the figures cause them to spasm. But these spasms are not vibrations that happen over an extent of time. Rather, they are wrestling forces that push-and-pull the figure in many directions at once, simultaneously and instantaneously.

Composer Messiaen described what he called rhythmic characters. The active one acts upon the passive one, all while an attending observer witnesses the drama. (See the Messiaen section of this entry for more on rhythmic characters, and for even more detail, see this entry). Deleuze relates the attendant figure to horizontal forces in Bacon's paintings. In this case, we feel a movement from the right panel to the left, crossing horizontally through the center one.

(Again, thanks Editions de la différence and the Estate of Francis Bacon)

Deleuze also classifies different force-oppositions in Bacon's works. We cannot reduce one to the other, but they may still coincide in the same figures, contracted together, but not dissolved into one. In this case, the door frames contract-upon the figures, and this contracting pressure is met with its opposing force, dilation: the bodies try to expand and escape through some bodily opening. As well, this expansion involves a descending force, as the figures' insides are shot downward.]

[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]), sometimes even flowing (Triptych, 1973 [73]), and sometimes total or constituting the entire field (Three Studies from the Human Body, 1967 [44]). (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), tantôt même débordante (« Triptyque » 1973), tantôt totale ou constituant tout l'aplat (« Trois études d'après le corps human » 1967). (Deleuze 2002: 140c.d)

[Bacon's figures appear pinned-up to a flat background. They seemingly hover in their place, as though supported by something like an armature of a sculpture. Deleuze says that one sort of armature in Bacon's works is a black square. In this case, the square is flowing out from its linear bounds.]

(Thanks so much 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:

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

Liquid Rhythm [70] Francis Bacon: Triptych, 1972. 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:

Estate of Francis Bacon;

Guggenheim;

Tate;

tate.org.uk

;

thecityreview.com;

Editions de la différence.

Credits given at the end.]

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

Liquid Rhythm

(Thanks Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

Francis Bacon

Triptych, 1972

That Tate Gallery, London

Painting 70 of Deleuze's

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

Painting [70] of the English translation

and Painting [70] of the Seuil 2002 French

A 1972 Triptych [70] shows a Figure whose back is "diminished," but whose leg is already complete, and another Figure whose torso has been completed, but who is missing one leg and whose other leg runs. These are monsters from the point of view of figuration. But from the point of view of the Figures themselves, these are rhythms and nothing else, rhythms as in a piece of music, as in the music of Messiaen, which makes you hear "rhythmic characters." (Deleuze 2003: xv)

This would be the augmentation-diminution opposition. There can be an extraordinary subtlety in what one chooses to add or take away: here we enter into a more profound domain of values and rhythm, since what is added or subtracted is not a quantity, a multiple or submultiple, but values defined by their precision or "brevity." In particular, an added value can sometimes be produced by random spurts of paint, which Bacon likes to utilize. But perhaps the most striking and most moving example is in the triptych of August 1972 [70]. If the attendant in the center is furnished with elongations and a well-defined mauve oval, we find a diminished torso in the Figure on the left, since a whole portion of it is missing, while the torso on the right is in the process of being built up, half of it having already been added. But then everything changes with the legs. In the left panel, one leg is already finished, while the other is in the process of being defined; in the right panel, it is just the opposite: one leg is already amputated, while the other is flowing away. Correlatively, the mauve oval in the center changes status, turning into a pink pool lying next to the chair, in the left panel, and a red discharge from the leg, in the right panel. In this way, Bacon uses mutilations and prostheses in a game of added and subtracted values. It is like a collection of hysterical "sleepings" and "awakenings" affecting the diverse parts of a body. But it is above all one of Bacon's most profoundly musical paintings. (Deleuze 2003: 56b.d)

Ce serait l'opposition augmentation-diminution. Il peut y avoir en effet une extraordinaire subtilité dans le choix de quelque chose qu'on ajoute ou qu'on retire : on entre plus profondément dans le domaine des valeurs et du rythme, pour autant que ce qu'on ajoute ou qu'on soustrait n'est pas une quantité, un multiple ou un sous-multiple, mais des valeurs définies par leur précision ou leur « brièveté ». Il peut se faire notamment que la valeur ajoutée soit un jet de peinture au hasard, comme les aime Bacon. Mais peut-être l'exemple le plus frappant et le plus émouvant est-il dans le triptyque d'août 1972 : si le témoin est fourni au centre par les allongés, et par l'ovale mauve bien déterminé, on voit sur la Figure de gauche un torse diminué, puisque toute une partie en manque, tandis qu'à droite le torse est en voie de se compléter, s'est déjà ajouté une moitié. Mais aussi tout change avec les jambes : à gauche une jambe est déjà complète, tandis que l'autre est en train de se dessiner ; et à droite, c'est l inverse : une jambe est déjà amputée, tandis que l'autre s'écoule. Et corrélativement l'ovale mauve du centre trouve un autre statut, devenu à gauche une flaque rose subsistante à côté de la chaise, et à droite un écoulement rose à partir de la jambe. C'est ainsi que les mutilations et les prothèses chez Bacon servent à tout un jeu de valeurs retirées ou ajoutées. C'est comme un ensemble de « sommeils » et de «réveils » hystériques affectant diverses parties d'un corps. Mais c'est surtout un des tableaux les plus profondément musicaux de Bacon. (Deleuze 2002: 76d.77b)

[Messiaen finds that rhythmic patterns can have a certain character, like how each different bird-call has its own character. (For more on rhythmic characters, see the Messiaen part of this entry, or for even more detail, see this entry). In fact, we might think of such rhythms as themselves being characters that actors might play. He distinguishes three: active, passive, and attendant. The active acts-upon the passive. It is like a sort of violence. Concretely, what we see is the active rhythmic character increases in some magnitude, while the passive decreases. It gives us the impression that the active one is striking-down upon the passive. All the while, there is an attendant rhythm, an observer if you will. His magnitude remains relatively constant. Perhaps the idea with the attendant rhythm is that it is like the frame of reference in physics, considered unmoving, all while the other motions move in relation to it.

Deleuze finds similar rhythmic characters in Bacon's painting, again, active, passive, and attendant. On the one hand, these rhythms express themselves in concrete features of the painting. For example, one figure might be holding a camera and for that reason seem to be observing the other figures. On this basis, he analyzes particular features of the paintings. But in a more profound way, there are such rhythms that are found in how our nervous systems are affected by the paintings. There is a rhythm of our sensations. So the active, passive, and attendant are really more like functions that the figures take-on. And they can exchange and circulate these functions, in accordance with how our bodies are affected by the painting at any given moment.

The figure in the center panel seems to have been elongated by horizontal forces.

(And again, I thank Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

It seems to be neither increasing nor decreasing. So it does not give us a feeling of augmentation or diminution. For this reason, it serves as the stable attendant rhythm.

All the while, the left figure's torso is concaving inward. It gives us the feeling of diminishment. So it expresses the passive rhythmic character.

(Thanks Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

But in the right figure, we see his torso convexing outward. When we sense this augmenting force, the figure takes-on the active rhythmic character.

(Thanks Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

Yet the figures are not so simple, Deleuze observes. One leg gives us the feeling that it is completed. So sense in it the attendant rhythm. The other leg on this figure seems like it is coming into being, and hence is the active character.

(Again, thanks Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

Yet in the right figure, one leg seems already amputated, while the other, seems to be floating away. Perhaps they provide the passive rhythm.]

(Thank you Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

The presence of a body without organs under the organism, the presence of transitory organs under organic representation. A clothed Figure of Bacon's is seen nude in the mirror or on the canvas (Two Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer,1968 [50]). The spastics and the hyperesthetics are often indicated by wiped or scrubbed zones [71], and the anesthetics and paralytics, by missing zones (as in the very detailed 1972 triptych [70]). (Deleuze 2003: 36ab)

Présence d'un corps sans organes sous l'organisme, présence des organes transitoires sous la représentation organique. Habillée, la Figure de Bacon se voit nue dans le miroir ou sur la toile [69]. Les contractures et les hyperesthésies sont souvent marquées de zones nettoyées, chiffonnées [70], et les anesthésies, les paralysies, de zones manquantes (comme dans un triptyque très détaillé de 1972 [73]).

[The figures in Bacon's paintings affect us in continually varying ways. They cause us to encounter differences upon differences, all while we feel forced to try to make sense of what we see. Consider the non-sense in Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. On the one hand, we feel compelled to make sense of what is going on, while on the other hand, the inherent non-sense prevents us from doing so. Bacon's paintings are similar in this way: we feel compelled to aesthetically put-together what we see, all while the rhythm of the random variations prevents us from being able to do so. This is a sort of non-sense of our aesthetic senses. It sends our bodies into disarray. Its parts no longer work together concordantly and organically. Hence our bodies become disorganized, and in a sense, a body without organs (see this entry for more on the Body without Organs). Deleuze points-out that in these paintings, Bacon depicts bodies with amputated organs.]

(With my gratitude to

tate.org.uk)

[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)

[We might notice how Bacon's backgrounds seem flat. This gives us the sense that the figures would drop out the painting's bottom if they were not secured somehow. Deleuze identifies parts of Bacon's paintings that act like sculpting armatures: they prop the figure up and hold it in place. In this case, Deleuze says that the black squares in the background serve this function.]

(Thank you Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

Many large contours, for example, are treated as rugs (Man and Child, 1963 [32];Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud, 1966 [38]; Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror, 1967 [45]), and seem to constitute a decorative regime of color. This third regime can be seen even better in the existence of the small contour, within which the Figure is erected and which can deploy delightful colors - for example, the perfect lilac oval in the central panel of the 1972 Triptych [70], which gives way to an uncertain rose-colored pool in the left and right panels; or the gold-orange oval that radiates from the door in the 1978 Painting [81]. (Deleuze 2003: 106.c)

et par exemple beaucoup de grands contours seront traités comme des tapis ( « Homme et Enfant » 1963, «Trois études pour un portrait de Lucian Freud »1966,«Portrait de George Dyer dans un miroir » 1968, etc.). On dirait un régime décoratif de la couleur. Ce troisième régime se voit encore mieux dans l'existence du petit contour, où se dresse la Figure, et qui peut déployer des couleurs charmantes : par exemple dans le « Triptyque » 1972 [70], l'ovale parfait mauve du panneau central, qui laisse place à droite et à gauche à une flaque rose incertaine ; ou bien dans « Peinture » de 1978 [23], l'ovale orange-or qui irradie sur la porte. (Deleuze 2002: 142c.d)

[We also find that Bacon's figures are often enclosed by some shape or object. There will be a contour to what encases the figure. In this case, Deleuze notices smaller contours filled-out by color. They are the rose-colored pools and the lilac oval.]

(Thanks Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

(Thanks very much

thecityreview.com)

(Once again, thank you Estate of Francis Bacon,

Editions de la différence,

and Tate)

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.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/francisbacon/introduction.shtm

Triptych – August 1972

Oil on canvas

198 x 1475 mm each

© The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS 2008

http://www.thecityreview.com/bacon.htm

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