Born in 1909 and died in 1992, Francis Bacon was throughout his life a single topic: the man. But which one? To this question, the English painter replied bluntly: «I think that man now realises that it is an accident, that he is a being devoid of meaning, he needs no reason to play the game until the end.» To play the game? Who looks at his paintings can only wonder what he shares with these creatures, deformed, disfigured, torn which seem to be always in the process of liquefaction. These magmas are unstable and shifting evoke, without doubt, a human figure, but which one?
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This conundrum has caused much ink to flow. Too, without doubt, for an artist who famously said: «If we can say it, why paint it?» For a long time, access to the work of Bacon was obstructed by the glosses and exegeses. Gilles Deleuze and Michel Leiris are excelled. There are more analyses, comments and interviews …
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