Pope and Chimpanzee 1962

This is Francis Bacon’s, Pope and Chimpanzee, and goodness knows exactly when he made it or with what. Look at the thick swipes of paint, all those dark, muddied colors. Bacon's got a way of building up this surface, where the paint almost seems to be fighting with itself. See the red rectangle behind the pope’s head? It's not just a color, it’s like a raw, exposed nerve. Then there’s the chimp, all tangled and slathered in green, merging with the figure above. He’s not trying to hide anything, right? The process is right there on the canvas, all the struggling and searching. There’s something about the way Bacon’s paint is both solid and fleeting. It reminds me of Goya, those dark, brooding portraits where you sense the weight of the world bearing down. Bacon doesn't give us easy answers. He just throws it all out there, raw and unresolved. And maybe that’s where the power lies.