Sunday, 31 March 2013

Francis Bacon - liminal realization


'The following is an extract from a conversation Between Francis Bacon and David Sylvester.
It is, if one may say so, Bacon's profound realization of his own liminal style of Painting, the characteristics of  both abstract and figurative painting, and the nature of paint itself'.


7 head 1 1961

"For instance, the other day i painted the head of somebody, and what made the sockets of the eyes, the nose, the mouth where, when you analysed them just form which had nothing to do with the eyes,nose or mouth; but the paint moving from one contour to another made a likeness of this person i was trying to paint. i stopped; i thought for a moment i'd got something much nearer to what i want. then the next day i tried to make it further and to make it more poignant, more near, and i lost the image completely. Because this image is a kind of tightrope walk between what is called figurative painting and abstraction. it will go right out from abstraction but will really have nothing to do with it. It's an attempt to bring the figurative thing up to the nervous system more violently and more poignantly".

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