Francis Bacon's Painting 1946: A Grotesque Reflection of Human Existence | Exercises Painting

Kari Kok

Francis Bacon Screaming in Oils

“The reek of human blood smiles out at me.” This line from Aeschylus's play Oresteia

aptly describes Francis Bacon's Painting 1946. The subject matter of the painting consists of an

open-mouthed stocky man clad in black clothes with his upper face obscured by a black umbrella.

The figure is framed by a butchered carcass of meat that serves to draw further attention to the

man by forming a grotesque curtain around him in the background. Various meats and offal are

also arranged on a circular railing and scattered about on a dais before the figure. The man's

upper lip is stained with blood as if he has been partaking of the carnage around him. The colors

Bacon used in this work are stark and lurid; the hues of flesh, blood, and death in pink, red, and

black. The bone white of the railing and the flayed meat serves as a counterbalance to the darker

hues of red and black that dominate the work. The painting was executed in oils with analytic

brushwork. Bacon often sought to represent the elements of his paintings in a clear manner and

strove to make his technique precise (Tóibín 135). How the composition of Painting 1946 is

arranged serves to direct the viewer's attention to the graphic visceral elements, namely that of

the tortured flesh and the emotional angst of the central figure. Bacon wished to show the

disintegration of matter through his paintings as a “way of reflecting the nothingness of

existence” (Braun 68).

The background is laid out on a vertical scale, emphasized by the broad, vertical planes of

pink and red, while the empty void of black in the center serves to draw the viewer's eye to the

figures of the meat and man. The painting illustrates Bacon's philosophy of the futility of

humankind's existence, that “we are little more than potential carcasses” (Braun 32). Bacon

claimed to have poured out the summation of his knowledge and expertise into Painting 1946—

in an interview, he explained: “It was like one continuous accident mounting on top of another”

(Tóibín 133). Although counted among the European Expressionists, Bacon's work has a feeling

of dark Surrealism to it with the smeared and distorted human-like forms that repeatedly show up

in his paintings. When the macabre and grotesque tableau of Painting 1946 was first shown in an

exhibition, it prompted reactions of revulsion, fear, and disgust. Art critic Mark Scala described it

as: “a feeling of being in the presence of death produced by the sight of actual viscera, organs, or

brains” (Scala 2).

Bacon was born in 1909 in Dublin, Ireland. Throughout his life Bacon encountered

conflict—beginning in his childhood when he was exposed to strife from the civil uprising of the

Senn Fein. He moved to London with his family during WWI, lived through the worst of the

German bombing, and narrowly missed being drafted to fight in WWII due to asthma (Tóibín

132). Bacon went on to design Modernist furniture and carpets to support himself before turning

to painting. Having lived through several violent, tumultuous periods and the horror of two wars,

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Kari Kok Francis Bacon Screaming in Oils “The reek of human blood smiles out at me.” This line from Aeschylus's play Oresteia aptly describes Francis Bacon's Painting 1946. The subject matter of the painting consists of an open-mouthed stocky man clad in black clothes with his upper face obscured by a black umbrella. The figure is framed by a butchered carcass of meat that serves to draw further attention to the man by forming a grotesque curtain around him in the background. Various meats and offal are also arranged on a circular railing and scattered about on a dais before the figure. The man's upper lip is stained with blood as if he has been partaking of the carnage around him. The colors Bacon used in this work are stark and lurid; the hues of flesh, blood, and death in pink, red, and black. The bone white of the railing and the flayed meat serves as a counterbalance to the darker hues of red and black that dominate the work. The painting was executed in oils with analytic brushwork. Bacon often sought to represent the elements of his paintings in a clear manner and strove to make his technique precise (Tóibín 135). How the composition of Painting 1946 is arranged serves to direct the viewer's attention to the graphic visceral elements, namely that of the tortured flesh and the emotional angst of the central figure. Bacon wished to show the disintegration of matter through his paintings as a “way of reflecting the nothingness of existence” (Braun 68). The background is laid out on a vertical scale, emphasized by the broad, vertical planes of pink and red, while the empty void of black in the center serves to draw the viewer's eye to the figures of the meat and man. The painting illustrates Bacon's philosophy of the futility of humankind's existence, that “we are little more than potential carcasses” (Braun 32). Bacon claimed to have poured out the summation of his knowledge and expertise into Painting 1946— in an interview, he explained: “It was like one continuous accident mounting on top of another” (Tóibín 133). Although counted among the European Expressionists, Bacon's work has a feeling of dark Surrealism to it with the smeared and distorted human-like forms that repeatedly show up in his paintings. When the macabre and grotesque tableau of Painting 1946 was first shown in an exhibition, it prompted reactions of revulsion, fear, and disgust. Art critic Mark Scala described it as: “a feeling of being in the presence of death produced by the sight of actual viscera, organs, or brains” (Scala 2). Bacon was born in 1909 in Dublin, Ireland. Throughout his life Bacon encountered conflict—beginning in his childhood when he was exposed to strife from the civil uprising of the Senn Fein. He moved to London with his family during WWI, lived through the worst of the German bombing, and narrowly missed being drafted to fight in WWII due to asthma (Tóibín 132). Bacon went on to design Modernist furniture and carpets to support himself before turning to painting. Having lived through several violent, tumultuous periods and the horror of two wars,

his artwork was subsequently affected by it. Bacon was influenced by other artists, most notably Picasso—whom he learned a great deal from and was inspired to take up a career in painting after viewing a gallery exhibition of his in 1927 (Tóibín 147). Although he had very little formal training as a painter, he studied art history extensively; and he drew inspiration and ideas from Muybridge, Velasquez, Degas, and Michelangelo (Tóibín 141). After the 1930's, Bacon's production of art slowed as he was particularly fond of drinking and gambling (Tóibín 148). He was not entirely successful in his new career until painting Crucifixion in 1933 and his first successful exhibition consisted of Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, Figure in a Landscape, and Painting 1946 (Sylvester 95). Bacon read Nietzsche and identified with Existentialism. Scala notes that Bacon, “was not lacking faith, but that his faith was in the meaninglessness of existence” (Scala 7). The elements of the painting – the meat, railing are all arranged around the central figure as if the man is standing enshrined by carnage and glorifying violence. It is a testament to the violence of the time. The wide-scale devastation and destruction caused by WWII left behind a sense of cynicism, hopelessness, and despair in the wake of the destruction. Bacon focused on these feelings—the sense of betrayal and disillusion after the progressive years of the Enlightenment—and brought them to life in his work. Painting 1946 was completed in England shortly after WWII ended. The painting is a commentary on the impact the chaos and devastation of the war had on society (Kleiner 971). The artist heightened this effect in Painting 1946 through the arrangement of gutted and flayed carcasses encircling the dominant male figure. The dark central figure becomes a symbol of all humankind reveling in a feast of slaughter. Painting 1946 reflects both a social and a personal function. Bacon created a social commentary on the brutality and horror of war as well as the hopelessness of existence, and this can be seen through his frequent portrayal of the body in pain. Bacon wanted to appeal to the nervous system rather the mind to elicit a reaction or evoke emotion from those who viewed his work (Tofts 78). The painting also serves a personal function as it reflects Bacon's existential beliefs—that humankind's existence is devoid of meaning and this message is aimed at every individual who views his imagery—that death is inescapable and one day, they too, will become little more than meat. Form directed the appearance of Bacon's work through his objective of trying to achieve the creation of Anti-representational art (Tofts 80). Bacon wished to dispense with “illustrational marks” and attempt to reproduce his chosen content with “non-rational marks” instead. The subject matter was not as important as the form and composition of the painting. Bacon's attitude follows art critic Clement Greenberg's ideals of the avant-garde, for Greenberg was concerned

Bacon focused on the mouth of his figures and tried to incorporate the emotive capabilities of it into his work as much as possible. He was obsessed with the imagery of the open-mouthed cry which he first came across in Eisenstein's Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin and Poussin's Massacre of the Innocents (Sylvester 14). The wordless cry of the gaping mouth in Painting 1946 mirrors the suffering, terror, and violence society experienced during WWII. Once Bacon had invented his defining style of painting, he would spend the rest of his life re-working various facets of it (Tóibín 151). Through his dark and macabre imagery, Bacon created a personal language and philosophy of form that connected the despair and raw emotion found both in an individual and in a general scale as well with musings on the unchangeable tragedy of human nature.

Works Cited Alley, Ronald. Francis Bacon. The Museum of Modern Art. Oxford University Press, 2009. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=272 (accessed 6 December 2013). Web. Braun, Emily. “Skinning the Paint.” Paint Made Flesh. Ed. Mark W. Scala. (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 2009). Print. Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages , 13th edition, Vol. II (Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2009). Print. Scala, Mark W. Paint Made Flesh. Ed. Mark W. Scala. (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 2009). Print. Sylvester, David. Francis Bacon: the Human Body. (London: Hayward Gallery and University of California Press, 1998). Print. Tofts, Darren. Parallax: Essays on Art, Culture, and Technology. (North Ryde: Craftsman House, 1999). Print. Tóibín, Colm. Love in a Dark Time: And Other Exploration of Gay Lives and Literature. (New York: Scribner, 2002). Print.

Francis Bacon's Painting 1946: A Grotesque Reflection of Human Existence, Exercises of Painting

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