Figures in Movement 1973

Curator: Figures in Movement, painted by Francis Bacon in 1973. What do you make of it? Editor: Pure anxiety, wouldn't you say? Those figures seem to be disintegrating even as they're trying to...what, flee? What is going on there? Curator: Let's consider the materials. Bacon’s distinctive application of oil paint—the texture, the way he builds up layers, scrapes them back, distorts the human form—it's all a part of expressing modern alienation through the very act of making. The canvas is not merely a surface but a battleground. Editor: A battleground, yes, absolutely! And look at that shoe casually placed behind the figure on the left, seemingly untouched by the turmoil of the rest of the scene! It makes me feel as if a play is starting where there is only enough budget for most of the elements of a scene. Curator: He often incorporated found images – newspaper clippings or photographs— into his works, literally embedding pieces of reality and sometimes a map, as we can see at the bottom, within the constructed space of the painting. He challenges the autonomy of the art object. The labor and source material behind its fabrication become part of the reading. Editor: Absolutely, but the figures also suggest classical statuary, even Greek ideals... yet, filtered through Bacon's tormented vision. What is he doing trying to paint figures, when the reality of being is so far away from any ideals. It also reminds me how it is difficult to create anything out of something broken, you will always be battling the pre-existing properties of something broken. Curator: We must remember Bacon's influences - Muybridge's photography and its treatment of motion. By acknowledging such predecessors, Bacon’s paintings underscore art-making as a cumulative and inherently collaborative process that extends far beyond the studio, connecting creative and intellectual fields, while at the same time being deeply introspective and almost isolated. Editor: Introspective for sure. A map of Bacon's internal geography, perhaps. Thinking out loud is rarely pretty or neat...and that's the case here as well! Curator: A suitable final thought indeed; thank you for sharing that with me, let us move on.