Dimensions: support: 254 x 190 mm
Copyright: © Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Francis Bacon’s "Man on a Bed," a pencil sketch held by the Tate. Its lines seem to trap the figure, giving an overwhelming sense of isolation. What symbols resonate with you in this piece? Curator: Consider the bed itself. Across cultures, it represents not only rest but vulnerability, birth, and death. Bacon's line quality, frantic yet controlled, traps the man in a psychological space. Is it a prison, or a sanctuary? Editor: I see the duality now. It's both a refuge and a cage, depending on one's state of mind. Thanks for clarifying that! Curator: Exactly. Bacon masterfully uses simple lines to evoke complex emotional and symbolic weight.
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tate about 2 months ago
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bacon-man-on-a-bed-t07381
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tate about 2 months ago
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These six sheets come from a small sketchbook which was probably used by Bacon at the same time as the spiral bound sketchbook which dominates the display. Limited to pencil and black oil paint, the more modest results remain consistent with the artist's use of drawings to log ideas. The pair of sketches, 'Cross-legged Figures with Arms Raised', show him testing the pose in different ways and possibly practising the fluidity of forms. The pencil drawing, 'Seated Woman', in which the head has been shifted from full-face to profile, relates fairly accurately to the 1961 canvas of that title, which only differs in using the setting of 'Man on a Sofa'. Gallery label, September 2004
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