Crucifixion 1965

Francis Bacon’s *Crucifixion* is a triptych, a painting in three parts, done with oil paint. Bacon throws figures into stark rooms, isolating them and us. The fleshy pinks are brutal. The background is relentless, a suffocating orange. Then he slashes and smears, suggesting bodies without defining them. Take the central panel, there's a figure on a bed, twisted impossibly. Bacon uses broad strokes to suggest limbs, smearing whites and greys over the pink flesh. It’s like he’s trying to erase the body even as he paints it. A dark, looping form hangs above, like a shadow or a parasitic twin. This isn't the comforting image of religious iconography, but something more violent. Bacon reminds me of Goya, or maybe Soutine, both artists who understood that painting is a way to wrestle with the darkness, to find some kind of truth in the mess. Ultimately, Bacon makes it clear that what we see is never fixed, never certain. It’s always in process, always becoming.