Francis Bacon.



"Studies for a human body" Section.
Francis Bacon

Many curators and critics consider Francis Bacon among
the most important artists of the 20th cent. An artist whose
main focus was on the act of painting, the manner of the brushwork, and the physical presence of the paint being the all important quality of his work. Bacon's painting are framed under glass, so when a viewer looks closely at work in the current exhibition at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, they become aware of the need to move around from one foot to another. This need for physical engagement is the only way to really see what is going on, the need to move the reflections on the glass in order to fully view the work. This is a deliberate device to force to enter into and connect with the painting. In other words the viewers subjectivity must over ride other conscious interpretation of the image.

Bacon once pointed out in an interview that "in the end painting is a result of the interaction of those accidents
[chance in the process of applying paint] and the will of
the artist or, if you prefer, the interaction of the uncontentious and the conscious".

Bacon stands alone in 20th cent. art, as realist who is not a realist.He was not an expressionist and rejected strongly any suggestions he was. Nor was he an abstract artist, rather he was a realist who was not interested in literal or illustrative interpretation of the world. He loved the element of chance inherent in his paint application. At times he Incorporated sand, sweeping from the floor in his work. Bacon applied paint not only with a brush and palette knife, but made use of rags, and foreign materials to produce the effects desired. He was always looking for the unexpected result.

Bacon was a realist painter in a very loose way, but had the ability for a viewer to recognise the image.He shun ed any idea of story telling and rarely included more than one figure in a painting. These figures were in turn often enclosed in suggestive boxes or rooms that contained them but not completely. He did not what the viewer to be tempted to relate one figure to another. The figures as you can see are in varying degrees distorted, but still recognisable. One is tempted to view his work as violent, but the scenes are not violent so as to force the viewer to experience a raw aspect of reality. To unlock their conscious attempt to interpret the image in some conventional way.

Bacon wanted to counter any tendency to define meaning in his paintings. His aim was to create a new aesthetic through the physical presence of paint. Abstraction for him was a dead end. His art was an attempt to create a
                                                                      new way to lock reality into something arbitrary.