What makes great art? For me what makes great art is when the artist visually articulates a new visual language that not only defines and relates to the current times but captures the concept of what can’t necessarily be seen, that’s difficult to articulate, but not impossible to understand it exists. In context to this exhibition and Francis Bacon; Francis Bacon visually articulates anxiety in the animal and human spirit and gives it a form that is unquietly original and disturbs the comforting unknowns.
Francis Bacon - Man and Beast at the Royal Academy, London, 2022
Ever since I was a kid and first saw ‘the three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion’ at Tate Britain I was both shocked and intrigued by this unknown creature. Since then, I have seen quite a few of Francis Bacon’s paintings, but didn’t really know why I liked them. There was something grotesquely fascinating about the work, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Passion and despair
‘‘I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his despairs. These things alter an artist whether for the good or the better or the worse. It must alter him. The feelings of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility.’’ - Francis Bacon
This exhibition, ‘Man and beast’ focuses on ‘where the line between human and animal is constantly blurred, reminding us that our primal instincts lie just below the surface’. Francis Bacon intrigued by the beast in living creatures, was obsessed with the human figure and animals in motion. His biggest inspiration came from the 19th, century French photography, Eadweard Muybridge.
Blurry lines
In the 1952 he made ‘Man Kneeling in grass’ where the lines between predator and voyeur are blurred. You can see how he was inspired by Muybridge here; the figure is of a man crawling on the floor, but there’s a sense of the pose inspired by photographs of a rhino.
'Man Kneeling in Grass', 1952 by Francis Bacon
Dog eat dog world
Bacon loved to paint dogs more than any other animal. In ‘Dog’, 1952, you can see again being inspired by Muybridge, but it seems more empathetic overall in positioning the animal on a cinematic stage with cars driving by in the background which is meant to be set in Monte Carlo with exotic trees, but absent casinos. The dog is the centre piece, a celebration over man, commerce, machinery and nature.
'Dog', 1952 by Francis Bacon
Looking at this work now felt timeless and relevant to what has happened recently around the world in relation to the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The common motif in his work is that the figures seem isolated which resonated with me a lot in relation to Covid with governmental lock downs, unable to visit family and friends. There’s this creeping sense of anxiety, alienation and despair that are locked in his compositions.
A paradox of violence
A really striking piece related to the covid pandemic is ‘Portrait of Henrietta Morases on a Blue Couch’, 1965. This shows not just a female figure, but empathic to the how the subject feels, isolated in a dark room. This feels also like a paradox of violence (look at the brush strokes of the body, the movement, and curves of her body) in contrast to the silent, still background wall, the door that feels locked and can’t be opened. Social distancing portrayed before social distancing.
‘Portrait of Henrietta Morases on a Blue Couch’, 1965 by Francis Bacon
Melody and rhythm
I then came across the beautiful ‘Study for Portrait of P.L’, 1957, his former lover crawled up in a foetus position on a curved sofa, with a swirling body that had melody and rhythm. This person looks as if they are suffering, but the body is full of vocal cords, loud and in pain. He deliberately painted from photographs due to ‘the injury I do to them in my work’.
‘Study for Portrait of P.L’, 1957 by Francis Bacon
A sense of isolation
We can also this sense of isolation in ‘Study for the nurse in the film Battleship Potemkin’, 1957. There’s a huge sense of space surrounding the figure in the middle, suffocated with space you get this feeling of being trapped with this person, but at the same time you are alone in your own existential hell, your own private space. This has been depicted in its bare primal and animalistic form.
‘Study for the nurse in the film Battleship Potemkin’, 1957 by Francis Bacon
With everyday war-torn images from the Ukraine war that are bombarding us every day in the media, I couldn’t help but see connections with Bacon’s artwork that he painted after World War 2. It was clear that there was a common motif that conveys humanity in the inhumane form in context to post World War 2 art. Bacon must have seen and experienced the harsh realities of war, but also an overwhelming feeling of fear and anger towards humans causing pain onto others.
Empty possessions
‘Figure Study I’, 1945-46 shows a hat, a herringbone-weave coat and flowers that is possibly covering a body. The symbol of someone once alive, but now we are left with their empty possessions and the shell of the person resonates with dead soldiers and civilians from the Ukraine war.
‘Figure Study I’, 1945-46 by Francis Bacon
Suffering for the sake of others
When I came across ‘Head I’, 1948 the first thing I noticed was the ear being suspended mid-air cornered in a room with this animal like creature screaming for its life. The horror Bacon vividly reveals is the suffering for the sake of others, the victim is being tortured by its aggressor. When we see images of war and hear about stories of victims being oppressed, we can Bacon was emotionally charged to investigate this area in depth. His work cross-examines relationships and obliterates the boundaries between the prey/hunter, the powerful/the weak and dominative/the submissive.
‘Head I’, 1948 by Francis Bacon
Inhereted power
In his painting, ‘Head IV‘, 1949 and symbolised the pope as this illusionary figure of authority, the illusion of authority of ‘fathers’. By looking at ‘Head IV’, you can almost hear the screams coming out through the canvas. this really questioned and captured aspects of inherited power.
‘Head IV‘, 1949 by Francis Bacon
When I saw the painting ‘Portrait of Innocent X’ by Velázquez years ago, I was completely blown away by its sheer realistic boldness, and vigour. Innocent X was a pope in Italy in the 1600’s, Velázquez was commissioned to paint him in 1650 that was praised for his honest realism as an intelligent, aging man, dressed in fine garments. Francis Bacon was inspired by Velazquez’s realism but wanted to add something else.When we compare this to the image above, it is very different but holds a new meaning to the idea of realism.
Sacrifice - a symbol of life
In his last painting ‘Study of a bull’, 1991 it shows his fascination with bulls. The bull in western art is an ancient symbol of life and power especially in the classical world, it’s also a symbol of sacrifice. The painting feels like a mystery, unfinished but the ghost of its meaning is strikingly there. The ghost like spirit and movement of the bull, the black void in the background, the white double door forms, the circular arena platform; all teases us with the symbols that I’ve just mentioned of life, power, and sacrifice.
‘Study of a bull’, 1991 by Francis Bacon
I absolutely loved this exhibition for its boldness and unwillingness to be quiet to something that fascinated him; what lies beneath a human. French philosopher, Gillies Deleuze believed that Bacon’s portraits revealed the figure behind the “mask” more than the face itself. I think there’s a lot of truth to this idea that Deleuze puts across. Bacon once said that; “masterpieces are always modern”. I think Bacon’s work are timeless and will always be modern.
I’d love to hear your opinions about Francis Bacon. Did you see this exhibiton? What did you get from seeing his artwork?